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3H P.L'aSELL. PTJBIISHEB.. EOSTOTi. 



/ 
LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 



GOV. RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 



RUSSELL H. CONWELL, 

AUTHOR OF "why AND HOW THE CHINESE EMIGRATE," "LESSONS 

OF TRAVEL," "history OF THE BOSTON FIRE," 

"woman and THE LAW," ETC. 



,V9-\^^ 



i 







BOSTON: 





PUBLISHED BY B. B. RUSSELL, 55 CORNHILL. 

PHILADELPinA: QUAKER CITY PUBLISHING HOUSE. SAN FRANCISCO: A.L. 

BANCROFT & CO. DETROIT: R. D. S. TYLER & CO. 

PORTLAND: JOHN RUSSELL. 



Copyright, 

By B. B. RUSSELL, 

1876. 



Franklin Press : 

Stereotyped and Printed bt 

Kand, Avery, & Co., 

Boston. 



THE REPUBLICAN VOTERS 



STATE OF OHIO. 

WUOSE VIGOROUS AND PERSISTENT WARFARE FOR FREEDOM AND 

FOR THE VINDICATION OF OUR NATIONAL HONOR HAS 

WON THE PLAUDITS OF EVERY LOVER OP 

HUMANITY THROUGHOUT OUR 

BROAD LAND, 

THIS VOLUME IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, 

BY THE AUTHOR. 



PREFACE. 



God bless the man who invented a preface ! He was a 
public benefactor, and ought to have a monument on Mount 
Olj'mpus. It is such a sweet satisfaction to have some spot 
in a book where the author can be at home with his intimate 
friends, and out of the reach of intruders, and where a 
writer can say any thing he pleases without fear of being 
questioned by the public. It is also a good provision for the 
readers, as it furnishes a receptacle for all kinds of odds 
and ends for which there is no place in the body of the work, 
and in which, if there were a place for them, the general 
public would have no interest. 

A preface is a most convenient thing. Some writers feel 
compelled to stride through their book on intellectual stilts, 
giving the impression that they are very tall men ; and 
even the members of their own family woukl not recognize 
them without looking back in the preface, and observing 
how the writers behave, and how they appear, at home. 
Others set about their work with lungs inflated, and cheeks 
pufled out, to such an extent as to deceive the very elect 
with regard to their lateral proportions. A preface corrects 
many of these errors; for there the author, trusting in 
his seclusion, appears in his natural leanness, and in his 

6 



6 PREFACE. 

everj-'day apparel. A preface is a preparatorj' rest, a social 
morning call on old acquaintances, or a sunrise ramble over 
the fields with the companions we love. It has nothing, 
apparentl}^ to do with the work of the daj^ 3'et there would 
be no work without it. It has nothing to do with the public, 
and none but near friends are expected to read it ; yet a 
book without a preface would be like a church without a 
steeple ; neither preface nor steeple being of any practical 
use beyond distinguishing one from a congressional report, 
and the other from a barn. Nevertheless, we glory in 
prefaces, and shall make the most we can out of them. 

It has been no small task to collect the materials for this 
work, and satisfy the demands of intelligent and critical 
readers ; for Gen. Hayes has not been one who has thrust 
himself before the people, nor one who has made anj' effort 
to make or to preserve an interesting biograph}'. He natu- 
rally shuns notoriety, and studiously avoids conspicuous 
positions. Hence, whenever he did any thing worthy of 
praise, he hid the whole matter as much as he could ; and 
his candidacies and elections to the offices he has filled 
have been remarkably void of clamor and displa}-. He 
seems never to have sought official position ; nor has he, 
apparently, cared for honor or distinction. He did his 
duty in whatever position he found himself, as though it 
was a matter of routine, and never has felt that he had 
done any thing worthy of particular mention. Hence the 
difficulty of writing a history of his acts. 

Gov. Hayes did not desire either to Avrite a biography or 
to dictate one himself, and was very much disinclined to 
have such a book written at all, as he modestly shrank from 
that kind of publicity. Neither did we wish to have him 



PREFACE. 7 

take any especial share in the preparation of a biography of 
himself, had he been made of less modest stuff, as a book 
prepared by himself, or by anj- person under his direction, 
must be open to the objection that it might be made partial, 
or be overdrawn for his individual benefit. We were deter- 
mined that our work should be clear of that objection ; and, 
although we could not have accomplished what we did with- 
out some of his assistance, j'et there was a distinct under- 
standing that the book should be independent and truthful, 
without regard to any favor from him or the ties of social 
obligations. We found him a kind and genial man, willing 
to do an}' thing he could to assist us in our work, wherever 
it did not require egotism or assurance to do it. We are 
grateful to him for his kindness, but should not allow our 
gratitude or admiration to influence our minds in making up 
our judgment of the man and his work, for the instruction 
of an anxious and interested people. We mean to be as 
Impartial and independent in the following pages as we 
would have been, had the subject of these sketches never 
known our intention, and never shown us a favor. 

But we could not send this volume to press, without 
expressing in some manner our appreciation of the uniform 
courtesj' and kindness of the people among whom we prose- 
cuted our search. We cannot forget the many obligations 
we are under to the relatives and intimate friends of Gen. 
Hayes, who served us so faithfully, and without whose assist- 
ance we must have come far short of a complete biogrnph}'. 
Among those to whom we are particularly indebted, Ave Avould 
record the names of Capt. Alfred E. Lee (private secretary 
to Gov. Ha^es), Hon. Staiijy INIathews of Cincinnati, ^^ — 
Major M. H. White of Cincinnati, Hon. R. H. Stephenson 



8 PEEFACE. 

of Cincinnati, Mr. A. I. Redway of Cincinnati, and Ex-Gov. 
Noyes also of Cincinnati, Hon. T. C. Jones of Delaware, 
O., Sheriff E. C. Vining, Mrs. Ursina Wasson, Mrs. S. M. 

Kilhourne, Mrs. Clarissa Hayes Moody, and Messrs. Beach 
and Bodiirtha, also of Delaware. 

In ever}^ town and city which we visited in search of his- 
torical facts, we were received with a kindly hospitality 
"which has left a fragrant memory. Even the newsboy's are 
gentlemen in Ohio. In all the multitudinous questions we 
asked" of strangers who knew not wh^^ we inquired, in all the 
unceremonious and tedious drafts we made upon the time of 
business-men in business-hours, and in all the guiding and 
explaining we received with reference to railroads, towns, 
streets, libraries, and hotels, we did not receive a discour- 
teous or curt repl}', and did not meet a man or bo}' who did 
not show a disposition to accommodate and assist a stranger 
in whatever he could reasonably desire. It was a rich expe- 
rience. It threw a charm about the whole undertaking, and 
made it pleasant and invigorating to linger among such 
a people. From the governor himself, down to the smallest 
and dirtiest bootblack on the corner, there was exhibited a 
gentlcmanl}- bearing and a spirit of liberality which excelled 
even the celebrated hospitalitj' of the ancient Germans. 

Noble, industrious, generous people ! Your smile of wel- 
come, j'our bi'otherl}' and sisterly- attentions, 3'our sweet good- 
b}', will strengthen our love for humanity, and will echo in 
our heart long after man}- nearer to us will have been forgot- 
ten. We can understand now, as never before, wh}" Ohio has 
reared so man}- statesmen and soldiers, and why her influence 
is so potent everywhere in the nation. Chivalrous regard 
for the wants and rights of others, genial good- will in their 



PREFACE. 9 

intercourse with each other, a high sense of honor, and a 
higii standard of intellectual culture, receive the admiration 
of every cultivated mind, and command the respect of all 
men. Such are the people of Ohio as we saw them a few 
days ago, and as we have seen them before. All honor to 
their great hearts 1 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

GEN. Hayes's native town. 

PAGE. 

Early Settlement. — Growth of the Town. — Gen. Hayes's Father. 

— Characteristics of the People. — Wesleyan College. — The 
Birthplace of Gen. Hayes. — Description of the House . . 21 

CHAPTER n. 
GEN. Hayes's ancestors. 
The Ancestry of the Hayes and Eutlierford Families. — The No- 
bilit.y. — The Coat-of-Arms. — The Settlement in Connecticut. 

— Hemoval to Vermont. — Rutherford Hayes of Brattleboro*. — 
His Early Life. — Sophia Birchard 27 

CHAPTER HI. 

emigration to OHIO. 
Rutherford Hayes determines to emij,'rate. — His Purchase of a 
Farm. — The Journey to Ohio. — Tlie Distillery. — The Home. 

— The Great Pestilence. — Death of Paitherford Haj-es. — His 
Burial-Place 34 

CHAPTER IV. 

BIRTH AND EARLY YEARS. 
Death of Rutherford Hayes. — Ursina Smith. — Sardis Birchard. 

— Birth of his Son Rutherford Birchard Hayes. — Cliaracteris- 
tics of his Mother. — Sickness in his Early Years. — Illustrative 
Anecdotes of his Babyhood. —Drowning of his only Brother. 

— Effect upon his ^Mother 40 

CHAPTER V. 

CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOLDAYS. 
Childish Sports. — His Playmates. — His Sister's Teaching. — Suc- 
cess of a "Good Boy." — Punctuality. — Brotherly Love. — 

Preparing for College 47 

11 



12 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VI. 

AT COLLEGE. PAGE. 

Selection of a College. — Uncle Bircliard's Opinion. — Tonng Hayes 
enters at Gambia. — His Stndent Life. —His Sports. — His 
Speech to the Eebellious Students. — His Graduation . . 61 

CHAPTER Vn. 

AS A LAWYER. 
Office Study. — At Cambridge University. — First Partnership. — 
Removal to Cincinnati. — Meagre Practice. — Effect of his ]\Iar- 
riage. — Ciucinuati Literary Club. — Hon. Stanley Mathews . 67 

CHAPTER Vin. 

HIS FIKST OFFICE. 

Increase of Legal Business. — His Part in Discussions and Recita- 
tions. — The Summons Murder Case. — Hon. Thomas Ewing's 
Opinion. — Election by City Coiincil. — Election by the People. 

— Increasing Desire for Work 66 

CHAPTER IX. 

THE BEGINNING OF THE REBELLION. 

Determination to enlist. — The Burnett Rifles. — Hayes's Opinion 
of the War. — Campaign in West Virginia. —Resignation of 
Lieut. -Col. Mathews. — Promotion of Major Hayes. — Military 
Expeditions. — Placed in Command of the Twenty-third Ohio. 

— Raid on Princeton 69 

CHAPTER X. 

HAYES IN VIRGINIA. 
First Trial in Manceuvring Troops under Fire. — Attacked by Supe- 
rior Numbers. — Fighting and Retreating. — Long Marches. — 
Commissioned as Colonel. — His Attachment to his Old Com- 
mand. — Arrival at Washington. — March into Maryland . . 77 

CHAPTER XI. 

BATTLE OF SOUTH MOUNTAIN. 

View of Catoctin Valley. — Appearance of the Army. — The Order 
to advance — The Skirmish Line. — The Discharge of Grape 
and Canister. — Col. Hayes wounded. — Regiment under Major 
Comley. — Return to the Field of Col. Hayes. — Charges by 
the Twenty-third Ohio 82 



CONTENTS. 



13 



CHAPTER XII. 

WOUNDS AND PllOMOTION. PAGE. 

Effect of his ^ound at South Mountain. — Searcli for him hy his 
Wife. — Promoted to be Colonel of the Twenty-third. — Placed 
in Command of the Kanawha Division. — Prevents Morgan's 
Escape from Ohio. — A Quiet Year of Camp Life ... 93 

CHAPTER XIII. 

BATTLE OF CLOYD MOUNTAIN. 

March up the Kanawha. —Approach to Cloyd Mountain. —Hayes's 
Charge across the ISIeadow. — The Contest at the Fortifications. 
— Capture of Guns. —Death of the Confederate General.— 
Destruction of the Railroad. — Long and Dangerous March. — 
Arrival at Staunton, Va 100 

CHAPTER XIV. 

THE ATTACK ON LYNCHBURG. 

The First Day's March. — Approach to Lynchburg. — The Appear- 
ance of the Enemy.— The Night Retreat. —The Heroism of 
Hayes's Brigade. — The Hardships of the March. — Hayes's 
Defence of Buford's Gap. — Surrounded by the Rebels.- 
Diary of an Officer 105 

CHAPTER XV. 

SHENANDOAH CAMPAIGN. 

Fight with Early. — Col. Hayes covers Another Retreat. — Sheri- 
dan's Choice of the Kanawha Division. —Daring Attacks upon 
Early's Lines. — Capture of Prisoners. — Battle at Berry ville. 
— Gen. Grant says, "Go in." — Opening of the Battle of Win- 
chester. — Charge of Hayes's Brigade. —Heroic Conduct of 
Col. Hayes. — Defeat of Early. — Col. Hayes's Charge. — The 
Enemy's Flank at North Mountain 110 

CHAPTER XVI. 

SHENANDOAH CAMPAIGN. 

Battle of Cedar Creek. — Early's Night March. — Defeat of Thor- 
burn's Brigade. — Retreat of Hayes's Troops. — Col. Hayes's 
Soldierly Bearing. — Col. Hayes saves Sheridan's Train. —Sup- 
posed Death of Col. Hayes. — Approach of Sheridan. — Early's 
Defeat. — Hayes's Promotions. — His Military Character . . 120 



14 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XVII. 

BEGINNING OF POLITICAL LIFE. PAGE. 

Hayes's Attachinent to the Whigs. — His Admiration for Daniel 
Webster. —The First Freesoil Clnb in Cincinnati. —Hayes in 
the Antislavery Convention. — Refuses Nominations. — Esti- 
mation of him in Cincinnati. — His Resolutions at the Grand 
TJuionMeeting.— His Support of Lincoln's Administration . 129 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

NOMINATION FOR CONGRESS. 

Gen. Hayes partially consents t/i he a Candidate. — The Forces to 

be overcome. —The Campaign of 18r,4. — The Popular Esteem 

for Gen. Hayes. —His Famous Letter. —His Characteristic 

Eeply to Judge Johnson. — Resolutions of the Ohio Soldiers. 

— Fh-st Mention of him for Governor 133 

CHAPTER XIX. 

IN CONGRESS. 
The Honor connected with his Election. — Opinions of his Ability. 

— His Silence in the House of Representatives. — Placed on 
Unimportant Committees. —His Growing Influence. — Descrip- 
tion of him as he then appeared. — His Reception on his Return 
Home 138 

CHAPTER XX. 

SPEECH ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 
Gen. Hayes's First Political Canvass. — The Issues of ISGO.- His 
Diflidence in Public. —Speech on the Constitutional Amend- 
ments. — The Rebel Plan of Reconstruction. —The Union Plan. 

— Johnson's Plan.— The Safe Method 145 

CHAPTER XXI. 

GOVERNOR OF OHIO. 
Nomination for Governor. — His Leadership of a Forlorn Hope. 

— The Word "White." — Makes Eighty-one Speeches. — His 
Election. — The Lil)eral Movement of 1872. — Hayes defeated. 

— His Retirement from Public Life 181 

CHAPTER XXII. 

POLITICAL TEXTS. 
Expressions by Gen. Hayes. —His Political Creed. —The Motives 
* of his Life. — The Principles by which he has been governed. — 
The Safeguards of the Nation 185 



CONTENTS. 



15 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

GEN. HAYES'S HOME. PAGE. 

Death of Sardis Birchard. — Gen. Hayes becomes his Heir. — 
Description of the Estate he left.— Its Occnpancy by Gen. 
Hayes.— Its Simplicity and Cleanliness. — Gen. Hayes pur- 
poses to remain upon it, and avoid Political Promotion. - His 
Speech at a Pteception in Fremont 190 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

STATE CAMPAIGN OF 1875. 

Called acain to lead his Party. — His Snpport of Judge Taft. 
— His Ileluctant Consent to be a Candidate for Governor. — 
His Great Speech at Marion. — Hard Money. —The School 
Question.— Catholic Voters. -Triumphant Election. . . 202 

CHAPTER XXV. 

EXTRACTS FROM GEN. HAYES'S SPEECHES. 
Keconstruction. —Paying National Debt in Greenbacks. — Issue of 
Bonds. — The History of Parties. — Negro Suffrage. — The Word 
" White." — Equality before the Law. — Administration of 
State Affairs. — Dedication of Fountain. — Dedication of a 
Soldier's Monument, &c 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

NOMINATION FOR THE PRESIDENCY. 
Nominated by the Pvepublican Convention. — Unexpected Honor. 
— His Previous Conversation on the Subject. —His Reception 
of tlie News. — His Letter of Acceptance. —Civil Service.— 
Currency. — Public Schools. — Relations between the North 
andSouth.— Closing Remarks 



231 



WILLIAM A. WHEELER. 

CHAPTER I. 

EARLY LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICE. 

Place of Birth. —Traits of his Boyhood. —Attendance on the Com- 
mon School. — Course at the Franklin Academy. —Goes to the 
Universitv of Vermont. — Undertakes the Study of Law. — 
First Years of Law Practice. — Elected District Attorney. — 

• Chosen to tlie State Legislature. —First Term in Congress. — 
President of tlip New York State Constitutional Convention . 



16 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER II. 

OFFICIAL LIFE. PAGE. 

Elected to Congress. — Influence in tlie Hottse of Eepresentatives. 
— Mentioned for the Office of President. — His Life in Wash- 
ington. — Sends liis Back Pay in 1873 to the United States 
Treasury. — Nominated for Vice-President. — Letter of Accept- 
ance . S19 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Portrait of Governor Hayes frontispiece. 

Birthplace of Gov. R. B. Hayes . page 25 

Capitol at Washington 143 

Private Residence of E. B. Hayes, Fremont, 201 

State Capitol of Ohio . 229 

The White House .* . 301 

Portrait of Plon. William A. Wheeler opp. p. 311 



INTRODUCTION. 



To record the acts of a man wliose success attracts 
the attention of an entire nation, and to place in a 
convenient and permanent form a history of his acts, 
and tlie acts of others whicli influenced his life, is both 
a pleasure and a duty. It is pleasant to trace from step 
to step the rise of a great man, and interesting to note 
how strangely, yet systematically, events are made to 
combine in producing such a man at a certain time. 
There is nothing in life more convincing of an over- 
riding Power, nor more clearly demonstrating the theory 
that the good is inspired, and the evil overruled, by some 
Personality having a mighty purpose, than the lives of 
America's great men. 

The biography of our presidents presents to the 
superficial reader nothing but the fact that men have 
been selected from various classes of society, from noble 
and ignoble stock, as if by accident, to conduct the 
affairs of a chief executive. Wealth or poverty, ances- 
try or locality, as independent facts appear to have had 
no influence. Yet there is. a clearly defined plan; and to 
trace the \rorkings of Providence, and discover the 
a 17 



18 INTEODLTCTION. 

system whicli developed these men in tlieir different 
spheres, is an elevating and instructive exercise. It 
becomes, therefore, a clear, unmistakable duty to write 
the biography of such men in order that the people 
may understand the dealings of God with men, and 
profit by the example which is thus set before them. 

There have been many popular theories upon this 
subject, which time and experience have served to 
dispel, not, however, until after each pet idea had been 
so far accepted and acted upon as to do the nation a 
vast amount of substantial ' good. 

Once it was thought that none but a soldier could 
reasonably aspire to be president. But the election of 
John Adams, James Madison, John Quincy Adams, and 
Martin Van Buren, wholly overthrew that theory. 
Then it was thought that only such men as were 
wealthy enough in their boyhood to pursue the highest 
branches of learning could hope to be chief magistrate. 
But the choice of Andrew Jackson and James K. Polk 
overthrew that idea. Again : it was said and taught, 
that a man should have been born poor, and sholild 
have been compelled to battle hard with poverty and 
enemies, before he could be fitted for the presidential 
chair. The election of Franldin Pierce and James 
Buchanan destroyed that argument. When Andrew 
Jackson was chosen for president, every ambitious 
politician cursed the fate which permitted the existence 
of only one " Old Hickory." When Van Buren came 
into the White House, they wondered why it had never 



INTRODUCTION. 19 

occiirred to them to get a polished education, and study- 
political economy all their youthful days; when Wil- 
liam Henry Harrison was president, they selected the 
medical profession for their children; when Zachary 
Taylor stood at the head of the nation, they desired 
nothing so much as to fight INIexicans and Indians ; and, 
Avhen Abraham Lincoln held the coveted place, they 
regretted that they were not brought up on a flatboat, 
and had been given no opportunity to win high honor 
b}' splitting rails, or building log cabins. 

But a study of the lives of our presidents, now that 
the number is large enough to form a basis from which 
to draw conclusions, will clearly demonstrate that no 
rank of birth, no station or profession, no creed or 
genius, ai-e certain to receive preference in political 
selections. So far beyond human calculation are the 
events of each four years, it has become to be an old 
saying, that " to be talked about beforehand as a candi- 
date for the presidency is to be certain of defeat." It 
appears to be an office to which it is useless to aspire. 
The surest way to obtain that prize is to attend to one's 
own business, whatever it may be, faithfully and hon- 
estly. The occasion seeks the man in a nation where 
" the voice of the people is the voice of God," and as 
we cannot tell what will be the needs of the nation four 
years ahead, nor foretell the emergencies which may 
arise, neither can we tell who, or what manner of man, 
will be called upon to guide the ship of state. How- 
ever, some broad principles remain fixed. Certain 



20 INTEODUCTIOIT. 

qualities a man must not lack, if he would be exalted 
in an enlightened republic. He must be honest; he 
must be just; he must be patriotic. The more these 
qualities are eulogized, and the more these prerequisites 
are impressed upon the peof)le, the more stable will be 
both our government and our communities. To set 
before the public the life of one in whom these qualities 
combine is the solemn duty of every writer to whom an 
overruling Providence offers the opportunity; and in 
that spirit has tliis work been undertaken. Men are not 
prophets, and cannot foretell the results of such a com- 
plicated matter as a man's life ; but, after it has been set 
before them, they can study the relation of cause and 
effect as therein exhibited, and, recognizing the leader- 
ship of a superhuman mind, they will emulate those 
qualities which have won favor from Him who laioweth 
all things. In these pages we set before you a life 
worthy of imitation. Men and women will be made 
wiser and better by its perusal, and we enter upon it 
with joy. 



IIFE or EUTHEEFOED B. HAYES. 



CHAPTER I. 

GEN. HAYES'S NATIVE TOWN. 

Early Settlement. — Growth of the Town. — Gen. Hayes's Father. — 
Characteristics of the People. — "Wesleyan College. — The Birth- 
place of Gen. Hayes. — Description of the House. 

In the town of Delaware, situated in tlie cen- 
tral part of the State of Ohio, was born the subject 
of this biographical sketch. The town is located on 
the western bank of the Oleutangy River, a muddy 
tributary of the still more muddy Scioto, the latter 
being a small branch of the Ohio River. The location 
of the village appears to have been chosen by the earli- 
est settlers, as it had been before them by the Delaware 
Indians, because of the exceeding fertility of several 
hundred acres of land in the immediate vicinity. It is 
possible that the idea of securing a water-power suffi- 
cient for manufacturing purposes may also have had 
its weight with the New England emigrants who built 
their cabins there. But the shght fall in the river was 
not brought into extensive use until many years after 



22 LIFE OF RUTHEr.FORD B. HAYES. 

the settlement began. The country in the vicinity is 
somewhat rolHng, and quite thickly wooded, furnishing 
excellent farming-lands, and beautiful sites for private 
residences. The town, though now boasting wide 
streets, long brick blocks, fashionable mansions, sus- 
pension-bridges, railways, newspapers, and colleges, 
was, at the time of which we desire to speak, but a 
diminutive hamlet of Western log-huts, with here and 
there a brick or stone dwelling, which, in the absence 
of saw-mills, was more easily constructed than those of 
wood. It had in 1817 about four hundred inhabitants, 
nearly all of whom were natives of New England. The 
first settler was a Mr. Bixby from the Berkshire hills 
of Massachusetts, who soon gathered neighbors from 
Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Vermont, and 
Massachusetts. These settlers carried with them moro 
or less capital, and, what has more to do with this 
biography than money, they neglected not to take 
also with them their New England enterprise, energ}^, 
and integrity. Their schoolhouse, church, and court- 
house was one and the same building in the earliest 
years, although it was soon found, that, practically as 
well as theoretically, a school and a criminal oourt 
could not long exist together. Like many other village^ 
of Ohio, Delaware was an Eastern village set down in 
the wilderness. All the people attended church on the 
sabbath ; every family sent their children to school ; and 
there was industry, frugality, and sociability. 

The spu'it of speculation and land-gambling, which 



GEN. HAYES's NATIVE TOWN. 23 

has ruined many men, and doomed a great number of 
Western towns and cities, never found its way into that 
quiet retreat. Corner-lots were never held for a pre- 
mium, and the people obtained all that they did get 
of money or wealth, either by inheritance from their 
parents in the East, or by continual and vigorous toil. 
Once it was said by scientific men, that Delaware had 
a bed of silver ore, and many of the oldest inhabitants 
believe it still ; yet so regular have the people been in 
their habits, and so disinclined to believe in sudden 
riches, that they have never investigated the story. 

Once, however, the habitual calm of the community 
was ruffled by the prospect that Delaware was to be a 
fashionable watering-place ; and a noble mansion was 
constructed on a beautiful hill out of the side of 
which flowed one of the brightest and most musical 
of all sulphur-springs. It was an excusable fallacy, 
and had the West been less healthy, or the people less 
modest, the enterprise could not have failed; for the 
medicinal qualities of the water, and the charming 
nature of the surroundings, were established beyond 
question. 

But the invalids did not come, and the watering-place 
project was a failure : so the people afterwards pur- 
chased the whole property, and gave it to the Ohio 
Wesleyan Seminary and Female College corporation, 
thus characteristically founding and endowing that 
which is now one of the most influential collegiate 
institutions of the State. 



24 LIFE OF EUTHEEFORD B. HAYES. 

The growth of the village was somewhat remarkable 
in view of the lack of manufacturing and commercial 
interests. The statement of that old settler must be 
true, who said, that " they cared more for good neigh- 
bors than they did about getting rich." The first house 
was built 1802 ; and it was without near neighbors for 
some years. Yet when Rutherford Hayes, the father of 
Rutherford B. Hayes, moved his family there in 1817, it 
was a flourishing village, having nearly all the conven- 
iences that characterized a country town in his native 
Vermont. They had log-huts, bad roads, many Indians, 
and the fever and ague ; but they were not without 
preaching, sabbath schools, prayer-meetings, day schools, 
and debating societies. Even the singing-master was 
there ; and some of the old people speak with enthusi- 
asm of the singing-schools, which Mr. Hayes himself 
liberally supported,- and where the young people sang 
some, and courted more, very much as they do, and have 
done, in New England from time immemorial. 

Hence, as much as our readers may desire it, and as 
closely as we may scrutinize it, the home of Rutherford 
B. Hayes at the time of his birth in 1822, and through 
the five years of his parents' residence in Delaware 
previous to his birth, had nothing very strange or 
wonderful about it. It was like the man of whom we 
write, industrious, quiet, and modest. 

The house which Rutherford Hayes built, and in 
which Gen. Hayes was born, is still standing on Wil- 
liams Street, near Sandusky Street ; and though other 



GEN. HAYES S NATIVE TOWN. 



25 



buildings have somewhat crowded it, and some changes 
have been made in the front-walls, it has the same out- 
line and material with which it was at first constructed. 
The front or main part is built of brick, two stories 
high, with a pitched roof, and stands with the side toward 
the street. The front-door w^is in the middle of the 
front-wall, with a room upon each side. There wei'c 




BIRTHPLACE OF GOV. R. B. HAYES. 

[From a photograph by Beach & Bodurtha, Delaware, O.] 

four ordinary frame-windows in the first storj-, — two 
each side of the front-door, — and five windows in the 
front of the second story. The roof is shingled ; and 
the log L, or addition at the back-side, is neatly covered 
with clapboards. The brick part of the house is about 
twenty feet by thirty feet, and the log L about fifteen 
feet by thirty feet ; the latter having had formerly a 
porch along the whole side, at the farther end of which 



26 LIFE OF KUTHERFOKD B. HAYES. 

was the well. Since the Hayes family left it, the house 
has been sold, and the brick front has been changed into 
a store by tearing out the partitions between the front- 
rooms and the front-hall, and by uniting the two front- 
windows on either side of the front-door, so as to make 
two show-windows. The store is now occupied by a 
dealer in furniture ; and, until recent events called it to 
mind, the people had forgotten that a family by the 
name of Hayes ever lived there. ^ 



CHAPTER II. 

GEN. HAYES'S ANCESTORS. 

The Ancestry of tlie Hayes and Rutherford Families. — The Nobility. 

— The Coat-of-Arms. — The Settlement in Connecticut. — Removal 
to Vermont, —nntherford Hayes of Brattleboro'. — His Early Life. 

— Sophia Bircaard. 

The Hayes family cculd boast a long line of honora- 
Me ancestry, if it ciiose to do so ; but it appears to have 
taken but little or no interest in the matter. That 
branch of the family which includes Gen. Hayes can 
be traced, it is said, back as far as 1280, when Hayes 
and Rutherford were two Scottish chieftains, fighting 
side by side with Baliol, William Wallace, and Robert 
Bruce. Both families wer3 numbered among the 
nobility, owning extsnsi/e estates, and having a large 
number of followers. The Hayes family, in its pros- 
perous days, before any of its descendants ever visited 
this country, and before the intermarriage with the 
Rutherfordo, had for a coat-of-arms a shield, barred 
and surmounted by an eagle in the act of flying. 
There was a circle of stars about the eagle, and above 
the shield; while on a scroll underneath the shield 
was painted the motto, " Recte." Some antiquarians 

27 



28 LIFE OF BUTHEKFOED B. HAYES. 

describe the coat-of-arms as having alternate bars of 
silver and red on the shield ; while others claim that the 
colors were white and blue. But, whatever may have 
been the shape or the color, no one but curious anti- 
quarians would care to know ; and the least interested 
searcher of all would be Gen. Hayes himself. There is 
no pride of ancestry to be found in his character : and, 
in fact, it is doubtful if he ever took the pains to ascer- 
tain whether his progenitors had either nobility or a 
coat-of-arms ; for he looks upon life very much from 
the standard of Robert Burns ; — 

" A king can mak' a belted knight, 

A marquis, duke, and a' that; 
But an honest man's aboon his might, 

Guid faith, he maunua fa' that 1 
For a' that, and a' that. 

Their dignities, and a' that; 
The pith o' sense, and pride o' worth, 

Ai'e higher ranks tlian a' that. ' ' 

But whoever were his ancestors, and whatever the 
glory of their knighthood and bravery on the Scottish 
border, it is certain that misfortune overtook the noble 
house of Hayes; for when George Hayes left Scot- 
land (in 1680) to make his home in Connecticut, he 
appears to have had but little property, and no near 
relatives. All that is known of him now is the fact 
that he settled in Windsor, Conn., and was an indus- 
trious worker in wood and iron, having a mechanical 
genius and a cultivated mind. He had one son, also 



GEN. HAYES'S ANCESTORS. 29 

named George, who remained in Windsor during liis 
life. Daniel Hayes, the son of the latter, was mar- 
ried to Sarah Lee, and lived after his marriage, and 
until his death, at Simsbury, Conn. Ezekiel Hayes, 
the son of Daniel, was born in 1724, and was engaged 
in the manufacture of scythes at Bradford, Conn. 
Rutherford Hayes, the son of Ezekiel, and grandfather 
of Gen. Hayes, was born at New Haven in August, 
1756. He was a tavern-keeper, a blacksmith, and a 
farmer. During his lifetime Vermont was the El- 
dorado of New England ; and a large number of 
people from Connecticut emigrated to that State, 
including Rutherford Hayes himself, who purchased a 
farm, and established a hotel, at Brattleboro'. It 
was in Brattleboro' that the father of Gen. Hayes 
was born. He was married, in September, 1813, to 
Sophia Birchard of Wilmington, Vt., whose ancestors 
' also emigrated from Connecticut, they having been 
among the wealthiest and best families of Norwich. 
Her ancestry by the male side can be followed, in an 
unbroken line, back to 1635, when John Birchard 
came to Norwich, and became one of the original and 
principal proprietors of that township. Both of her 
grandfathers were valiant soldiers in the Revolution; 
one of them, it is said, being an intimate companion 
and friend of Gen. Israel Putnam. Her parents were 
frugal and industrious persons, whose quiet and unos- 
tentatious manners attracted no particular attention in 
the intelHgent and stirring communities of Vermont. 



so LIFE OF EUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

The Hayes family, and also tlie.Bircliard family, lias 
a numerous progeny. One branch of the Hayes lineage 
settled in Maine ; another, in New York ; another, in 
Vermont ; while an almost countless number of the 
citizens of Connecticut claim a relationship to the 
Hayes family, more or less distant. The Birchards 
are a well-known family in Vermont, Massachusetts, 
Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Maryland ; and all 
trace their ancestry back to George Birchard of 
Norwich. 

The father of Gen. Hayes was one of those inter- 
esting characters, whose life illustrates the persever- 
ance, enterprise, and varied talents of our early New 
England people. He was the second son in a family 
of nine children, — three sons and six daughters. • He 
is mentioned by the old people who' remember him, as 
having a kind, oj^en-hearted way of greeting his 
acquaintances, and being always ready and prompt to 
do any neighborly service that circumstances sug- 
gested. In his boyhood, he was the " errand-boy " of 
the famil}^, and a most devoted companion for his 
mother and sisters. He could mend a plough, or knit a 
stocking, and could turn his hand to almost any kind 
of work without appearing awkward, or injuring the 
tools. He attended school during the winter months, 
and worked in the blacksmith-shop, or on the neighbor- 
ing farms, during the summer. He was a leader among 
his young companions in all their plays and games, but 
was never a leader, and seldom a follower, in practical 



GEN. HAYES'S ANCESTORS. 31 

jokes or mischief-making. He was somewlaat frail ; 
and the hard work upon the farm or in the shop often 
resulted in protracted illness : consequently, his father 
procured for him a situation as clerk in a country store 
near by, and soon after assisted him in establishing a 
store of his own at Brattleboro'. 

In that mercantile occupation ho made a large num- 
ber of acquaintances, and nearly all of them became 
true and valued friends. He was engaged in that busi- 
ness when he became acquainted with Sophia Birchard, 
and was at that time the most promising, intelligent, 
and influential young man of Brattleboro'. He con- 
ducted his business on Christian principles. His store 
was kept there to assist his fellow-men ; and, whenever 
his neighbors or townsmen Vv'ished for any thing which 
they could not obtain in Brattleboro', they applied 
to Rutherford Hayes, who always acted for them, and 
never charged a profit beyond reasonable wages ; and 
that was distributed equally among his whole stock. 
His stock in trade was brought to the town to accom- 
modate the people, not to extort money. He not only 
anticipated their wants, and had on hand those things 
his customers needed, and just when they were called 
for, but by his skill in purchasing, and Iiis careful man- 
agement of the transportation, he saved the community 
a great deal of expense. He was looked upon as a 
benefactor; and no one in that community received 
more hearty congratulations, or was ever the subject 
of more good wishes, than Rutherford Hayes at the 



32 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

time of his marriage. He was active in all the benevo- 
lent enterprises of the village. He was a member of 
the Presbyterian church, and was an active supjDorter 
of religious and secular schools. 

It was in church that he met Sophia Birchard, whose 
part in this drama of real life was so important and 
iiiteresting, that we dwell upon it with pleasure. She 
was a most fit companion for Rutherford Hayes ; and 
her disposition and manner covered the defects of his 
nature. He was inclined to be silent ; but she was 
ready and instructive in her conversation. He was 
often disposed to be sad: she was as sparkling as a 
mountain-spring. He would from choice have pre- 
ferred to attend close to his work, evening and day, 
and sought recreation more to add to the happiness of 
others than from any taste of his own : she was play- 
ful and witt}^, light-hearted and cheerful, and uncon- 
sciously forced him into laughter and jollity. With 
him, religious services were a solemn duty ; with her, 
they were a happy privilege. He was charitable and 
generous, because it was right he should be so : she 
performed kind acts because she loved to make others 
happy. Their lives ran parallel, and they neither 
clashed nor divided. His keen sense of duty, and her 
unbounded love, always brought them to the same 
conclusion. 

It is probable that there are wives and mothers in 
our land who could be counted in thousands, who 
are the equals, in every grace, of Mrs. Hayes; but 



GEN. HAYES'S ANCESTORS. 



33 



that fact does not make those traits of characterless 
yahiable, nor less deserving of mention. Virtuous 
wives and Christian mothers are the safeguards of the 
nation. Without their potent influence, a repuhhc is 
not possible. Such a woman as Sophia Birchard Hayes 
is to be honored and revered by a people who depend, 
as we must, upon public education and private morality 
for the foundations of our system of government. And 
she will receive the praise and the thankful remem- 
brance of all who have had kind mothers, and know 
what it is to be the subject of woman's sacrifice. 



CHAPTER III. 

EMIGRATION TO OHIO. 

Eutherford Hayes determines to emigrate. — His Purchase of a Farm. 
— The Journey to Ohio. — The Distillery. — The Home.— The 
Great Pestilence. — Death of Eutherford Hayes. — His Burial- 
Place. 

The same incentives whicli impelled his father to 
leave Connecticut at the close of the Revolution, and 
emigrate to Vermont, moved in the mind and heart of 
Rutherford Hayes after the close of the war of 1812, 
and led him to entertain the idea of moving his family 
to the attractive and romantic wilds of " the Ohio." 
It was somewhat characteristic of his father's house- 
hold to desire a change ; and only three of the nine 
children settled permanently in Brattleboro', — one 
brother, a farmer, and two sisters, Mrs. Polly Noyes and 
Mrs. Belinda Elliott. The other brother practised law in 
New Haven, and died in the Barbadoes, where he was 
sent by the government as a United States consul. 
One sister, Mrs. Clarissa Hayes Moody, lived many 
years in Granby, Mass., and is now residing in Dela- 
ware, O. Another sister, Mrs. Sarah Hayes Bancroft, 
was the wife of a lawyer, and now lives in Chesterfield, 

34 



EMIGEATION TO OHIO. 35 

Mass. The other two sisters, viz., Mrs. Abby Hayes 
Kobbins, and Mrs. Fannie Haj^es Smith, lived in 
Granby, Llass. 

The influences which took the brother and the sisters 
away from Brattleboro', however, were not the same, 
either in time or character, with those which started 
Rutherford. He appears to have had no good reason 
for his movement; and his sudden resolution and as 
sudden departure on his exploring expedition is one of 
those unaccountable freaks of human nature, in which 
the superhuman assumes control to the exclusion of . 
the usual reasoning faculties. Call it a " Western 
fever," a desire for change, or whatever one may, it 
remains as yet an unexplainable phenomenon. By this 
overmastering desire, which overrides every thing in its 
fury, the West has been peopled with the best and 
strongest of our New England families, and the grand 
purposes of God subserved thereby. 

What motive could have induced Rutherford Hayes 
to sell out his stock in trade, abandon his old home and 
many friends, was the wonder then of his whole county, 
and is a marvel still. He had secured enough dur- 
ing his few years in trade to be independent and 
comfortable. He was accumulating money. He had a 
wife and two children, whose relatives and acquaint- 
ances, like his own, were all in that vicinity. Every 
thing he loved, every thing he could desire, — a happy 
home, thriving churches, excellent schools, established 
and profitable business, old friends, old associations, 



36 LIFE OP EUTHEEFOKD B. HAYES. 

every thing, — was there ; yet Rutherford Hayes, follow- 
ing a destiny he could not fathom, and moved by an 
impulse none could explain, determined to leave them 
all, and set his face toward the savage men and savage 
beasts of a terrible wilderness. 

Of his first journey into Ohio, on a tour of inspec- 
tion, we know but little. Those who accompanied him 
have passed away ; while he never said much about it, 
nor did he leave any record of it. All we know is, that, 
after an absence of nearly four months, he returned to 
Brattleboro' with the declaration that he had pur- 
chased a farm on the Olentangy River, in the wilds of 
Ohio, to which he purposed to move at once. 

Of those days of preparation, of the selling, the 
packing, the visiting, the settling of every worldly 
account, the buying of the horses and the emigrant- 
wagon, the storing-away of food, clothing, and keep- 
sakes, the sad glances towards the setting sun, the 
shouts of the crowd, the good-bys of dear ones, the 
tears thaJ: would not be iiid, none can speak so well as 
the emigTai;;^: who has seen and heard them. It must 
have filled the soul with awe. Starting from the 
known to the unknown, stepping out into an eternity, 
boldly marching into the unbroken night of countless 
ages, and leaving behind every thing which goes to 
make up the joys of civilized life, — such was the move- 
ment made by Rutherford Hayes. 

They started from Brattleboro' in a covered wagon 
drawn by three horses : some accounts say two. In that 



EMIGRATION TO OHIO. 37 

veliicle was stored all tlie goods tliey liad reserved from 
all their possessions, and nearly all the food they 
expected to need on the journey. They six— Ruth- 
erford Hayes, Sophia Hayes, little Fannie, and little 
Lorenzo (the latter scarcely old enough to walk), 
Sardis Birchard (Sophia's young brother), and Ursina 
Smith (a young orphan) — were to travel by day, and 
sleep by night, in that tented conveyance, regardless of 
dense forests, deep streams, storms, and savages, which 
they were sure to meet on the way. Ursina- Smith, 
now Mrs. Ursma Smith Wasson of Delaware, O., is the 
only survivor of them all ; and her story of that forty 
days and nights of travel and peril would make a 
romance by itself. But so many families had a like 
experience before the great State of Ohio was redeemed 
from the primitive forests, that we will not make this 
an exception, and recite it here. 

It would seem to be a conclusive argument that 
Rutherford Hayes did not himself know why he had so 
suddenly and impetuously moved into Ohio, when we 
state, that after his arrival in Delaware, in 1817, and 
while the farm he had purchased lay idly awaiting his 
coming, he did not go there to improve it. He had a 
capital of three or four thousand dollars ; and, while 
looking about in the little town for an opportunity to 
safely and profitably invest it, he abandoned the idea 
of farming altogether. His land was situated on the 
banks of the river, about a mile and a half above the 
village of Delaware ; and it is said that he often rode 



38 LIFE OF EUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

out to see it, but he never could make up his mind to 
move his family out into such a wild place, exposed as 
it was to wild beasts and marauding Indians. Soon an 
opportunity offered itself to purchase an interest in the 
distillery, which had been built there by the firm of 
Lamb & Little, and which was at that time considered 
both a respectable and profitable business. Mr. Hayes 
purchased the share of Mr. Little ; and the business 
was continued, up to the time of Mr. Hayes's death (in 
1822), in the name of Lamb & Hayes. 

Mr. Hayes began the construction of a house soon 
after his investment in the distillery ; and, as his capital 
and recognized ability gave him the highest social 
position in the community, he deemed it necessary to 
construct a dwelling in keeping with his position. 
Hence the building he constructed, as awkward and 
unfashionable as it now appears, was then the finest 
and most convenient residence in town. 

About a year after his arrival, a second daughter 
was born, who was named after its mother, but who 
died before she reached the age of five years. In naatters 
of public importance, Mr. Hayes was always sought as 
a counsellor ; and he was liberal in his donations for 
the institution of schools and churches. He was one 
of the earliest and largest subscribers toward the fund 
for building the first church edifice for the Presbyterian 
church of Delaware, of which he and his wife were 
members ; but he did not live to see the building com- 
pleted. 



EMIGEATION TO OHIO. 39 

The years 1821 and 1822 were terrible years for the 
people of Ohio, and are mentioned even now with a 
shudder. During those years, a malarious Simoom 
swept over the State, smiting with a malignant bilious 
fever the young and the old. Scarcely a family but 
felt the cursed pestilence ; while there were many in- 
stances where whole households were exterminated at 
one swoop. In Delaware the disease was unusually 
fatal. Some said it was the effect of decaying vegeta- 
tion : others said it was caused by the miasma rising 
from the stagnant pools and their poisonous green scum. 
Whatever the cause, the air was loaded with pestilence ; 
while funerals and burials were appallingly frequent. 
Swift as the cholera, and as incurable as the plague, it 
drove the people into their graves by the hundreds, and 
into exile by the thousands. Rutherford Hayes was 
one of its victims. It was but a few short hours after 
the first feverish flashes ran- through his limbs, before 
the poison had performed its dreadful mission, and 
Rutherford Hayes was no more on earth. In the little 
burial-ground on a knoll near the sulphur springs, and 
bordering on the park of the female college, they laid 
away in universal grief, and with public ceremonies of 
respect, all that had been mortal of the faithful friend, 
the patriotic "citizen, the indulgent father, and affection- 
ate husband. 



CHAPTER IV. 

BIKTH AND EAELY YEAES. 

Death of Eutherford Hayes. — Ursina Smith. — Sardis Birchard. — 
Birth of his Son Eutherford Birchard Hayes. — Characteristics 
of his Mother. — Siclvness in his Early Tears. — lUustratiye Anec- 
dotes of his Babyhood. — Drowning of his only Brother. — Effect 
upon his Mother. 

EuTHEEFOED Hayes died July 22, 1822 ; and the 
utter desolation wliicli appeared to surround his widow, 
Sophia Hayes, can be imagined by those only who have 
experienced such a bereavement under similar circum- 
stances. She was in a new and a strange land, far from 
all the friends of her youth, with no one older or 
stronger than herself on whom to lean, or with whom 
she could share the burden of her grief. Her little 
Soi)hia had died the year before ; and the shadows of 
that sorrow still lurked about the doors, windows, and 
corners of the yard, where the little one had been so 
often seen at play, and they served to make more dark 
and appalling this strange dispensation of God's provi- 
dence. She thought she had then seen the deepest 
sorrow. She said there could be no lower depths of 
grief. But ah ! she did not know how much more she 



Bir.TH AND EARLY YEARS. 41 

could and must suffer. Even tlie deepest i^it seems 
to lead to some still lower abj^ss ; and we find no place 
so dismal or so low but that it might be worse. 

Mrs. Hayes, however, was a woman possessed of au 
unusually cheerful character, which, combined with 
her unfaltering faith in the goodness of God, and the 
wisdom of all his decrees, gave her a spirit of resigna- 
tion, that strengthened her body and mind. Surely she 
had need of all the consolations of religion, and all the 
comforts of friendship, to bear the great trials of her 
widowhood. A birth and a death lay in her path to 
try her still more. 

Little Fannie was a school-girl, who could not be of 
much assistance to her mother ; and Lorenzo was, in his 
early boyhood, an unceasing object of solicitude and 
care. It was then that she saw how much wiser are 
they who implicitly obey the sweet teachings of the 
gospel than are those who trust to their own worldly 
wisdom ; for in that early day of her married life in 
Vermont, when the appeal was made to her to take into 
her home the little orphan, Ursina Smith, and assume 
the care and expense of her growth and education, it 
was regarded by many of her acquaintances as a most 
foolish undertaking. Her neighbors, it is said, dis- 
couraged her, and told lier that she would be certain to 
regret such an unwise following of her sympathy and 
of her ideas of Christian charity. But now, when he 
on whom she placed her whole dej)endence in this life 
had been taken away, and she natiu-ally looked about 



42 LIFE OF BUTHEEFOED B. HAYES. 

for some other support, there, beside her, so near as to 
be like a daughter, so affectionate and grateful as to be 
a most faithful friend, was the poor orphan, now almost 
a woman gro^yn. Then she recognized the truth of the 
great promise. The bread she had cast upon the 
waters returned to her. As these two women walked 
on side by side through those dark years, drawn closely 
together by the bonds of a common bereavement, how 
often did they thank God for the delicious fruits of 
charity ! 

Not alone in the companionship and faithful services 
of Miss Smith did Mrs. Hayes reap the reward of her 
kindness of heart and deeds of Christian charity. 
Sardis Birchard, her brother, had entered her household 
when but fifteen years of age. He had been thrown 
upon the care of her husband and herself by circum- 
stances he could not control. She had been a mother 
to him, more faithful and affectionate than many real 
mothers are : she combined a mother's and a sister's 
love in all her acts and prayers. For five jeais he had 
been to her as a son, and had received from her much 
of that enthusiasm and social education which served 
him so well in his subsequent remarkable career. 

Now in her desolation she was to receive her reward. 
Here was a friend, — a sturdy, open-hearted young 
man just entering upon life, who loved her more than 
either could realize until the horn- of need came upon 
her. Sardis Birchard was a noble young man. He 
deserved to have friends ; he deserved to gain riches : 



BIRTH AND EAELY YEARS. 43 

and we are devoutly thankful tliat he had them. He 
was as affectionate and tender as a girl with his sister 
and her little ones : he was as brave as a hero in the 
hour of danger: he was as industrious, frugal with 
hunself, and generous toward others, as the chiefest 
and best of his Huguenot ancestors. His devotion to 
his sister's family knew no cessation during his life. 
He made it his especial life-work to care for them ; and, 
in the accumulation of wealth, he appears to have been 
moved by the single purpose of making some of them 
happy. Verily did this noble woman receive her 
reward. 

Oct. 4, 1822, less than three months after the death 
of his father, and in the house built four years before 
by his father, Rutherford Birchard Hayes was born. 
His birth was not signalized or celebrated by any thing 
prodigious or promising : on the contrary, his life had 
a most inauspicious beginning. His mother was weak, 
and almost dying with grief and care. His Uncle 
Sardis was compelled by the business he had just begun 
at Fort Ball to be absent a great deal. His little 
sister was sick ; and he was so weak and frail, that no 
one believed he would live beyond a month or two. 
As the months went by, he grew weaker and weaker, 
until the neighbors were in the habit of inquiring if 
" Mrs. Hayes's baby died last night." 

Yet as each day added to his mother's strength, and 
increased her ability to bury her sorrow, every day 
that he lived on increased his chances of overcoming 



44 LIFE OF RUTHEEFORD B. HAYES. 

tlie disease wliicli seemed to be preying upon him. 
The writer has conversed with men and women Avho 
were frequent visitors at the house during his baby- 
hood ; and they rehate many anecdotes illustrating the 
state of his health, and the condition of his family at 
that time. 

One day Mr. Rheen, an intimate friend, and a 
Masonic associate of Sardis Birchard, called in to see 
Mrs. Hayes, and " to ask after that boy." He was a 
jolly man, and had lived in the family for some months 
after his arrival in Delaware. He was on very familiar 
terms with the family, and began to banter IMrs. Hayes 
upon the appearance of " that boy." 

" Why ! " said he, " in a year or two more, he will 
be all head." 

Mrs. Hayes made some laughing reply about having 
children who " knew" something," even if their heads 
were out of proportion to the size of their body. 
Whereupon Mr. Rheen ironically remarked, — 

" That's it ! Stick to him. You have got him along 
so far ; and I shouldn't wonder if he should really come 
to something yet." 

" You need not laugh," said Mrs. Hayes. " You 
wait and see. You can't tell but I shall make him 
President of the United States 3*et." 

Another neighbor, living near by, very frankly told 
Mrs. Hayes, one morning when the baby was about 
eight months old, that " it would be a mercy if the 
child would die." He was sure it could not live long ; 



BIRTH AND EAELY YEARS. 45 

and, the sooner it breathed its last, the less suffering 
would it see. 

Another friend told her plainly that it was no use to 
work so ; " for," said he, — 

" The child must die ; and it is a waste of strength. 
I tell you the child is not worth saving ! " 

So the neighbors talked, and so his mother worked, 
for three or four years. Even Sardis Birchard declared 
that the boy could not grow up, and, if he could, he 
would be a useless invalid. 

When little Rutherford was three years old, an 
accident happened which drew him even closer to his 
mother, and made her even more determined and anx- 
ious that Rutherford should live. 

In the winter of 1825, and when Lorenzo Hayes, her 
eldest son, was nine years old, the Olentangy River 
was frozen over with such thickness and smoothness 
as to furnish fine skating for the j'oung j)eople. Among 
those who rushed out to enjoy it was Master Lorenzo, 
who was an agile, adventurous youth, and a great 
favorite with his playfellows. He was proud of their 
admiration, and performed many feats for their edifica- 
tion. It appears that there was an air-hole in the ice, 
where the water was deep, and the current strong, 
around which the skaters had been flying all day. 
Young Hayes conceived the idea of experimenting to 
see just how near to the opening it was possible for 
him to glide, and escape a fall. Around and around 
the dangerous pool he circled, drawing nearer and 



46 LIFE OF EUTHEEFOED B. HAYES. 

more venturesome with each circuit, until his skates 
chipped the glassy edges of the whirlpool. Suddenly 
there was a loud report, a crash, and a scream; and, 
Lorenzo went like a shot into the eddy beneath. He 
was a good swimmer and a cool-brained youth, and 
as he arose to the surface, succeeded in clasping the 
ice in such a manner as to support himself, and keep 
his head above water. But the ice was too thin and 
weak to bear his weight, and would break off at each 
attempt to raise himself out of the freezing flood. His 
mates, frightened out of their reason, ran away to 
call the neighbors, leaving him alone. It was but a 
few moments before help was procured ; but, when 
they reached the spot, he had disappeared in the con- 
gealing waters. His body was recovered a short time 
after by breaking the ice ; but it was cold and stiff in 
death. 

What a shock it was to his mother, what unutterable 
woe it brouglit to a heart already broken with grief, 
may possibly be imagined, but it cannot be told. 
When they hastily bore home the body of her eldest 
boy, and she felt that she had lost that prop, her whole 
being went out in prayer to God to preserve the son 
and daughter who remained. What wonder, then, that 
she gave herself no rest ! What is there surprising in 
her ceaseless vigilance, and her unwillingness for many 
years that Rutherford should go beyond her sight? 
Fannie and Rutherford were her all from that time 
forth. She had no care, no wish for herself, beyond 
them and their happiness. 



CHAPTER V. 

CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOLDAYS. 

Childish Sports. — His Playmates. — His Sister's Teaching. — Success 
of a " Good Boy." — Punctuality. — Brotherly Love. — Preparing 
for College. 

The childhood of young Rutherford differed from 
that of many other boys, inasmuch as he was unable 
to engage in vigorous sports, or to attend the public 
school, until he was seven years of age. He was a 
weak, thin, pale boy, whose large eyes and tender smile 
attracted the attention of all with whom he came in 
contact. His sports were wholly within doors ; and his 
sister Fannie and her associates were his playmates. 
He naturally shunned the coarse and rude boys upon 
the street, being as timid and nervous as a girl. This 
disposition, together with the cautious and unceasing 
oversight of his anxious mother, kept him free from all 
the little vices and mischievous traits which charac- 
terize nearly every boy at that period of his life. 

His sister was a faithful guardian and an apt teacher ; 
and it may be that his education progressed more favora 
bly in her charge than it would have done in the hands 
of older and more experienced teachers. 

47 



48 LITE OF EUTHEEFORD B. HAYES. 

It is refreshing to record the success of one boy 
whose childhood was marked by no disobedience, and 
whose boyish activity led him into no wrong. It is so 
seldom that such boys arrive at distinction. So uni- 
versally have valedictorians and model scholars in school 
or college sunk into oblivion, while the mischief-maldng, 
unruly, careless classmates have achieved the greatest, 
noblest success, that affectionate parents may well 
tremble when they learn that their dear boy graduates 
at the head of his class. Either he will rest satisfied 
with that honor, or lie will get such a high opinion of 
his own ability, that he will come to the fatal decision 
that there is no more for him to learn. Such an opinion 
of one's self is an intellectual and moral death. But 
the scholar who has been playing tricks and practical 
jokes when he should have been preparing his lesson, 
who has been disobedient, and evaded his recitations, 
goes into the world feeling that he lias accomplished 
nothing, and all of honor or value for him in education 
and work lies yet before him. He enters upon life, 
feeling that he is just beginning it; while the valedicto- 
rian starts out for himself as though he was already at 
the end of it. Expelling young students from college 
has often made great men of them ; while a graduation 
with the highest honors has as often destroyed them. 
It is a sad fact, and ought not so to be. It is, however, 
reasonable to suppose that such will continue to be the 
case until school prizes and extraordinary honors are 
abolished, and the young men are taught that it is not 



CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOLDAYS. 49 

the summuyn honum of our earthly lives to stand at the 
head of a graduating class in Greek or geometry. 

Young Hayes was to that rule an exception. During 
his attendance at the common school, he was always 
waiting at the steps of the old stone schoolhouse when 
the door was opened in the morning, and never late in 
returning to his seat at recess. He did not sj^linter 
his desk with his penknife, nor throw paper halls or 
apple-cores at his next neighbor. He never blew up 
the schoolhouse with powder, nor pinned streamers to 
the backs of his teachers. He engaged in no quarrel 
with his schoolmates ; and he strictly obeyed every 
direction and command of liis instructors. He was a 
model boy. To him the teacher pointed with pride, 
and set him before the school as a standard of good 
behavior. Yet he was so modest and bashful, that 
such flattery and distinction did not make him proud, 
or turn his mind from his studies. 

We write these things with joy j for there are hun- 
dreds of discouraged teachers in our land who will be 
encouraged thereby. For years they have been looking 
and waiting for some such example. They have yearned 
for a history such as this, in order to recite it to their 
unsteady pupils ; and here it is at last, — a good boy, 
and a successful man. Here is a child without fault, a 
schoolboy without tricks, a scholar without deceit, a 
playmate without selfishness, who has become great in 
the eyes of the world. Happy teachers ! This example 
is a rich morsel for you ; and indeed the influence of 



60 LIFE OF BUTHERFORD B.' HAYES. 

such a life will do more for the nation in an educational 
and moral way than many statutes. 

In all his early schooldays, his sister Fannie was his 
faithful companion. Men and women now old and 
gray recall those days, and speak with tenderness of 
the affection which marked all the relations of that 
brother and sister. Seldom were they separated until 
his college-days, and even then he found his sister to be 
a substantial help, and a ceaseless watcher over every 
thing which could concern him. 

His uncle, Sardis Birchard, began also to take an 
extraordinary interest in his education; and as the 
young boy's health improved, and his mind grew more 
vigorous, his uncle conceived the idea of sending him 
to college. When the great progress he made con- 
vinced his mother and sister that Rutherford could bear 
the strain of college studies, they reluctantly consented 
to his uncle's plan, and it was decided that he should 
begin a systematic preparation. He attempted it for a 
while at home with a tutor ; but, as he did not acquire 
knowledge as rapidly as his ambitious uncle desired, he 
was sent to a professor in Middletown, Conn., where he 
remained a year, and from which place he returned, 
amply fitted to enter any university in the land. 



CHAPTER VI. 

AT COLLEGE. 

Selection of a College. — Uncle Bircliard's Opinion. — Young Hayes 
enters at Gambia. — His Student Life. — His Sports. — His Speech 
to the Kebellious Students. — His Graduation. 

In the spring of 1838, the question was to be decided 
where young Rutherford should pursue his college 
course; and after some discussion, according to the 
traditions among the neighbors, Kenyon College was 
selected because of its proximity to his home. He had 
been gone a year while preparing for college, and the 
trials of that separation had a weight in the discussion 
on the part of his mother and sister. But Uncle Birch- 
ard, who was regarded as authority in all these matters, 
since he had assumed the guardianship and patronage 
of his nephew, must be consulted, and he was in 
favor of Kenyon ; not that Uncle Birchard pretended 
to be a judge of the relative value of colleges, for he 
did not claim even to know what branches of learning 
were taught there. He knew that his own education 
was very meagre ; and he was determined that his 
nephew should not be r.z ignorant as he himself had 
been. He was a great-hearted, generous man, who 



62 LIEE OF KUTHEEFOED B. HAYES. 

loved his ward, and who, believing that Rutherford 
would some day inherit wealth, was anxious that he 
should have a cultivated mind to enjoy his means, and 
to use them to advantage. 

He did not know why one college was not the same 
as another, and, fortunately, Kenyon was near by, and 
where he could see his protegS often. He may have 
been influenced b}^ the fact, that, when he lived in Del- 
aware, he sometimes went to the Episcopalian sabbath 
school ; or he may have been moved by the fact that 
an Episcopalian missionary among the Indians had 
assisted his mercantile business materially at Tiffin by 
urging the savages to trade with Birchard, who never 
sold them whiskey, and who treated them as fairly as 
he did the white men. Whether for these reasons, or 
for others unknown to us, not only did Kenyon College, 
but several other Episcopalian enterprises, find favor 
in his sight, notwithstanding the fact that his sister 
was a strict Presbyterian, and had kept young Ruther- 
ford in regular attendance at the services and sabbath 
school of that denomination. 

The terms of Rutherford's college-life after he 
arrived at Gambia are years of silence. He was such 
a quiet lad, that he came and went to his recitations, 
day after day, awakening no attention either by failure 
in his studies, or by any displays of superior genius. 
He was characteristically modest and retiring in his 
choice of a room, going into the gable-end of the build- 
ing, and taking the attic room, with one little round 



AT COLLEGE. 53 

window peeping out from under tlie ridge-pole. His 
room-mate told the writer, that while other students 
grumbled, and often flew into a rage, about the labor 
imposed upon them in the care of their rooms, yet 
Rutherford carried the water and fuel up all those 
stairs, through all those months, doing more than his 
share, without giving expression to one word of com- 
plaint or dissatisfaction. 

He never joined in mischief-making, and no one ever 
thought of his doing so. His character and disposition 
were too well known and too much respected to be a 
matter of doubt. Rutherford was never in a college 
scrape himself ; but he did sometimes do his best to 
extricate his classmates from difficulties into which 
their indiscretion had led them. 

One day a student who was a prominent member of 
his class, and who had exhibited much more than the 
usual ability, was caught by the faculty while playing a 
practical joke. The trick gave the professors great 
offence, and it seemed probable that the student would 
be expelled in disgrace. Yet he was such an able and 
brilliant student, that the faculty debated the matter 
for some time, and at last came to the conclusion to 
give the student one chance of restoration. They 
decided, that should the student be willing to stand 
up before the classes when gathered for prayers, 
and, confessing his fault, ask the forgiveness of the 
teachers, he should be restored to favor. In some 
manner, the deliberations and decisions of the faculty 



54 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

were made known to the class of which the delinquent 
was a member, and an indignation meeting was held 
to discuss the situation. There were speeches and 
resolutions, extolling the martyr who would sacrifice 
himself " to vindicate his honor ; " and all were strenu- 
ously opposed to the terms offered to the suspended 
one. They told him never to yield. They would not 
make such a shameful concession. No, no ! Death 
before such dishonor ! The tide was all one way, and 
the young delinquent saw that he must choose one of 
two evils, — either be disgraced in the eyes of the 
faculty, or be conside-red a coward and a sneak by his 
classmates. When the matter was in that condition, 
young Hayes entered into the debate. It would be im- 
possible to report now precisely tho words which he 
used on that occasion ; but, as near as his classmates 
recall them, they were as follows: — 

" Fellows, this is all a mistake. It cannot be that 
you have stopped to think. Now, I know well what I 
should do if I had been caught in such a scrape, and 
had received such a proposition from the faculty. I 
should not wait a single hour before I went and asked 
their forgiveness. I tell you, fellows, we have friends 
at home who care nothing about our codes of honor, but 
to whom our disgrace would bring great sorrow. I 
would not put them to shame by refusing to do such a 
little thing as confessing publicly to the truth. If he 
did wrong, he ought to confess it. If it was not wrong 
in itself, but is so held by the faculty, it can do no 



AT COLLEGE. 65 

harm to tell the truth about it, and say he is sorry that 
he did it. I tell you, boys, it would be foolish to accept 
a lasting disgrace rather than acknowledge such a little 
shortcoming as that. If he don't do what the pro- 
fessors ask of him, he is a very foolish young man, and 
will regret it, and his family will regret it, down to his 
dying-day." 

Those bold and sensible words changed the whole 
current of opinion ; and, when tlie time came for the 
student to confess, he had the approval and support of 
the entire class. That student is now one of the most 
honored and distinguished men of Ohio, and has con- 
tinued from that day to this the faithful friend of his 
college champion. 

Another classmate of young Hayes was an impetuous 
and brilliant young Southerner, who was unceasingly in 
trouble of some sort ; and to Hayes he was indebted for 
some of his escapes. He admired the " light-haired 
lad ; " and after years of separation, — in which the 
Southerner went from Congress into the Confederate 
Army, — he came forward promptly from his Texan 
home, and improved the first opportunity to do honor 
to his old schoolmate. Judge David Davis of the 
United States Supreme Court was also in college with 
Hayes. 

Another of his classmates, and one to whom it appears 
young Hayes was much attached, was afterwards presi- 
dent of the college, and died while in the war, with the 
1 auk of colonel. The number of young Hayes's confi- 



56 LIFE OF RTJTHERFOED B. HAYES. 

dential friends were, however, few, as he was so reticent 
in his manner, and so retiring in his natural disposition. 
He loved to kick the football, or to pull the oars with 
his companions, more for the satisfaction it seemed to 
give them than from any taste of his own for those 
sports ; and he never intruded himself or his affairs 
upon them bej^ond those matters which were necessary 
for the life of the sport. When left to his own free 
choice, he preferred to go to the woods with a gun, and 
chase the wild game alone. 

At his graduation, although he was not quite twenty 
years of age (1842), he was the leading favorite among 
professors and students, and stood at the head of his 
class. Glad day was that for mother, sister, and uncle, 
when his college-years were over, and he returned to 
them crowned with honor. It is doubtful if they would 
have been more pleased and proud, had thej'- lived to see 
him the President of the United States. 



CHAPTER VIT. 

AS A LAWYEK. 

Office Study. — At Cambridge University. — First Partnership. — 
Kemoval to Cincinnati. — Meagre Practice. — Effect of his Mar- 
riage. — Cincinnati Literary Club. — lion. Stanley Mathews. 

Immediately after his graduation at Kenyon Col- 
lege, Hayes began the study of law in the office of 
Thomas Sparrow, Esq., then a prominent and suc- 
cessful practitioner at Columhus, O. His health had 
greatly improved, and his figure began to assume some- 
thing of the robust appearance which characterized 
him in after-years. His college-life had given to study 
and literary labor a fascination which he could not 
resist ; and he desired to adopt some profession in which 
there would be continuous mental work. It does not 
appear that he gave promise, at that time, of being a 
very fluent or eloquent speaker ; neither does it appear 
that he selected the profession of laAV with any hope 
that it would lead to distinction. Certainly, at that 
time (1842), he had few of the characteristics which 
are usually taken to mark the fitness of a young man 
for either the bar or the forum. It is presumed that 
Uncle Birchard, with whom Hayes spent his vacations, 



68 LIFE OF KUTHEKFORD B. HAYES. 

and whose interest in the youth was as active and 
engrossing as that of a father, had some hope, that, by 
means of the law, his Rutherford might achieve great- 
ness ; for to Sardis Birchard this young man was the 
brightest, noblest, wisest, and most eloquent youth 
which the world contained. He often foretold a great 
future for his ward ; but his prophecies fell upon un- 
believing ears. 

There was one element of the young student's char- 
acter to which, more than to any thing else, was due his 
remarkable success in whatever he undertook. He was 
thorough in all his work. He never was satisfied with 
a superficial knowledge of any thing. Whatever he 
desired to know he studied in all its phases, and did not 
leave it until all there was to be learned about that 
question had been fully digested. Such was his habit 
in matters of law. Blackstone was not so dull, nor 
Chitty so dry, as to discourage him ; while every legal 
problem which presented itself went not unsolved if 
there were authorities, decisions, or reports enough 
within reach to settle the question beyond dispute. 
The special practice of a single law-office did not 
furnish him with the variety of cases, nor the complete 
libraries, with which to satisfy his desire for legal 
knowledge. He did not wish to limit his learning to a 
single branch of jurisprudence, as nothing short of 
knowing the whole would satisfy him. So he deter- 
mined to leave the office of Mr. Sparrow, and take a 
course in the Harvard Law School at Cambridge, Mass. 



AS A LAWYER. 59 

His life at Cambridge was as quiet and retired as it 
was at Gambia ; and there are classmates now living 
who do not remember him, either in name or appear- 
ance. He seems to have felt like a stranger in the 
Cambridge University, and to have studiously and per- 
sistently kept aloof from his classmates, who were 
either too busy with their own affairs, or in some cases 
too aristocratic in their tastes, to seek out the modest 
boy, or to cultivate his friendship. Tliose two years 
must have been dull years to him, unless, as is possible, 
he was so absorbed in contracts, torts, evidence, plead- 
ings, crimes, and equity jurisprudence, and in the large 
libraries of books bearing upon the practice of law, 
that he did not notice the slow flight of time. 

In 1845, after his graduation at the Law School, he 
was admitted to the bar during a session of the courts, 
at Marietta, O., and shortly after went into' practice as 
an attorney-at-law, with Ralph P. Buckland of Fre- 
mont, O. It is somewhat remarkable, that whenever 
young Hayes selected a companion, a friend, or a part- 
ner, he almost invariably selected men who afterwards, 
by their acliievements and successes, demonstrated the 
wisdom of his choice. His partner at Fremont — whether 
selected by himself, or accepted on the recommendation 
of his uncle, who still retained a great influence over 
him — was a strong and able advocate, and a kind, 
obliging friend. In after-years Mr. Buckland became 
a leader among the people, and in the war of the 
Rebellion he took an earnest part, becoming one of the 



60 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

most trustworthy .generals of the Union Army. After 
the war he was elected to a seat in Congress. 

With him Hayes remained three years, having, accord- 
ing to reports, but a limited practice, and caring but little 
whetlier he had any at all. His uncle had become the 
Avealthiest banker in that portion of the State, and, as 
Hayes felt sure that his uncle would make him his heir, 
he looked upon the acquisition of money as no object 
worth the effort. Here, again, was Hayes's life at vari- 
ance with the usual record. His prospective riches and 
present assistance drew him into no extravagance, nor 
enticed him into vice. The fawning of flatterers, the 
wiles of bad company, had but little effect upon him ; 
and their only visible influence upon the upright, 
honorable, and vigorous life, was a certain lack of 
motive, which showed itself in the conduct of his busi- 
ness. Men said, that " if Hayes was a poor boy, and 
dependent on his own earnings, he would make a great 
man." Why should he work while he had within reach 
all he desired ? It is a dangerous position for a young 
man to occupy, and one which has been the ruin of 
thousands among our ablest youths. Its influence upon 
Hayes served only to confirm his desire for seclusion and 
quiet, — a feeling and a purpose wholly at variance with 
those qualities which usually attract the attention of 
a litigating public, from whom the lawyer draws his 
clients. 

In 1849 Hayes moved to Cincinnati, O., where he 
entered upon the practice of law with more zeal. Yet 



AS A LAWYEP.. 



61 



his progress in that city was exceedingly slow, although 
in after-years, while in jDartnership with such men as the 
Hon. R. M. Corwin, William Rogers, and Leopold Mark- 
breit, the number of cases was so large, that he could not 
accept all those which came to him. Yet in the first 
years of his practice, it must have been lonesome, 
unprofitable business. Many young men would have 
abandoned the profession ; and it may be that even he 
would have done so, had he been very ambitious, or felt 
the need of present funds. 

As it was, he persevered with the undertaking, was 
always to be found at his post during business-hours, 
and was an accurate and trustworthy attorney in such 
matters as were then placed in his charge. 
, Two important events occurred during his stay in 
Cincinnati, which gave a new impulse to his ambition, 
and opened the way to both prosperity and distinction. 
The first and most important of these was his engage- 
ment and marriage to Miss Lucy Ware Webb, daughter 
of Dr. James Webb of Chillicothe, O. No one can esti- 
mate, nor could he explain, the refining and ennobhng 
influence of a love such as that which the educated, 
refined, sprightly, and religious wife drew about him. 
With her there came a motive. The latent aspirations 
revived ; and life appears from that time to have been 
to him a work and a duty. A holy desire to be a benefit 
to his fellow-man, and a determination to leave the 
world better and wiser than he found it, crept into his 
heart along with that love which in itself was purifying 



62 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

and strengthening. We write as it appears to us, look- 
ing upon his life with nothing but the facts before us 
from which to deduce a motive. As we look upon the 
events of his career from the standpoint of a historian, we 
see that for some cause, from the time when he became 
attached to the lovely and pure-minded maiden, and 
even from the hour when he first met her at the bright 
spring in Delaware, and asked who the dark-eyed school- 
girl was, his life took in a new inspiration. 

At Cincinnati this transition from a listless desire to 
do what is right, and take no thought for the future, 
to a man of mettle, full of hope and resolution, is strik- 
ingly apparent. It was there that he began his defence 
of the poor. It was there that the fugitive slave found 
in him a bold and successfid advocate. It was there 
that the workingman found a stanch friend to mediate 
between him and the capitalist. It was there that the 
weak-minded and insane found a careful and affection- 
ate protector. It was there that he showed the sur- 
prised people that a lawyer could be a Christian gentle- 
man and a practical philanthropist. When, as in the 
case of Nancy Farrar, the idiotic poisoner, the judges 
were called upon to select some person to defend that 
ignorant and helpless one, they did not choose the 
aristocratic barrister, nor the blundering blusterer, but 
turned to this unassuming and almost unknown young 
lawyer, and asked him to undertake her defence. All 
such cases were gratefully received by him. In them 
he could engage his heart, as well as his intellect ; and 



AS A LAWYER. 63 

to the second and even the third trial he pressed his 
cause, if success came not with the first verdict. Not- 
withstanding the fact that he made no claim to reli- 
gious sanctity, nor pretended to be holier or purer than 
his fellows, yet there came into his acts, from some 
direction, nearly all the desires and motives which 
make up the characteristics of a biblical Christian. It 
may be that his mother retained her moral influence 
over him, and doubtless she did, in a certain degree, as 
his upright single life would seem to indicate. But here 
was an awakening, and a vigorous activity which seemed 
to be coincident with, and an offshoot of, his union with 
pure and holy womanhood. 

The other event to which we referred was his intro- 
duction to the Cincinnati Literary Club, an institution 
which had been established some years before his 
advent in Cincinnati, and which was organized for 
purposes of literary, scientific, and social culture. It 
was an organization which drew to its membership the 
highest and best classes of society. There were many 
men there, like himself, Avho were young and hopeful, 
and who afterward became influential members of the 
community. There were Chief Justice S. P. Chase, 
Gen. John Pope, Gov. Edward F. Noyes, Gen. Man- 
ning F. Force, Robert W. Burnett, Judge John W. 
Herron, Gen. Alfred T. Goshorne, Hon. D^ Thew 
Wright of the Supreme Court of Ohio, Judge M. D. 
Oliver, Surgeon-Gen. William H. Muzzey, Hon. Reu- 
ben H. Stephenson, surveyor of customs at Cincinnati, 



64 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

Hon. Charles P. Ames, Murat Halstead of " The Cincin- 
nati Commercial," Samuel R. Reed of " The Cincinnati 
Gazette," and a host of others of like celebrity and 
ability. To a young man of Hayes's natural dispo- 
sition, and, in fact, to any man in any station, such a 
circle of intimate acquaintances was of inestimable 
value. 

There he was thrown into close relations with his old 
college-mate, the Hon. Stanley Mathews, with whoni 
he has since retained such an intimate and brotherly 
relationship, that we cannot forbear inserting here a 
brief sketch of him who had such a marked effect 
upon the successes of nearly all of Hayes's subsequent 
undertakings. Judge Mathews was a Democrat in 
his early years, and was one of the most energetic and 
conscientious leaders of his party during the decade 
preceding the war of the Rebellion. Under Buchan- 
an's administration, he was appointed United States 
District Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio. 
But the manner in which the president conducted the 
administration, and the increasing power of slavery, 
did not accord with Matthews's ideas of justice and 
right ; and he resigned his office, and was outspoken in 
his denunciation of the slaveholders and their rebel- 
lious proceedings. 

He afterwards entered the war as lieutenant-colonel 
in the same regiment with Major Hayes, where he re- 
mained until October, 1861, when he was commissioned 
colonel of the Fifty-first Ohio Regiment. He was in sev- 



AS A LAWYER. 65 

eral severe campaigns under Gen. Rosecrans and Gen. 
Buel, and was severely wounded at Dobbins Ferry in 
October, 1863. He was elected judge of the Court of 
Common Pleas, at Cincinnati, which ofQce he held for 
eighteen months, and then resigned, jjreferring the 
privacy of his own office and practice to any position 
of public honor. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

HIS FIRST OFFICE. 

Increase of Legal Business. — His Part in Discussions and Recitations. 

— The Summons Murder Case. — Hon. Thomas Swing's Opinion. 

— Election by City Council. -^ Election by the People. — Increas- 
ing Desire for Work. 

With the extension of Hayes's acquaintance came, 
also, an extension of his legal practice. The ability 
which he displayed when prevailed upon to take part 
in the discussions of the club, his readiness as a con- 
versationalist, and more especially his rendering of the 
speeches of Daniel Webster, when selected to read or 
recite them in public exercises, attracted the attention 
of his associates, and gave them confidence in his 
ability. Thus with an increasing desire to work, 
inspired by a Christian home and a growing business 
acquaintance, with its consequent increase of business, 
Rutherford B. Hayes entered upon an era of profes- 
sional prosperity seldom excelled even in this land of 
anomalies. 

One of the most noted murder-cases tried in Ohio, 
known as the " Summons Case," was carried through by 
him in a masterly manner, and drew to him the atten- 



HIS FIRST OFFICE. 67 

tion of the whole State. The final hearing of the case 
was before the Supreme Court at Columbus, of which 
Judge Thurman (afterwards senator) was a member. 
The court-room was crowded with noted lawyers from 
all parts of the State, among whom was the Hon. 
Thomas Ewing, who congratulated Hayes after the 
trial in most emphatic terms. 

In 1856 he was nominated for the office of judge of 
the court of Common Pleas ; but he declined to accept 
the nomination. In 1858 the office of sohcitor for the 
city of Cincinnati was made vacant by the death of 
Judge Hart ; and the city council, very unexpectedly to 
Hayes, elected him for the unexpired terQi preceding 
the next election. It was only after much urging, that 
he was prevailed upon to accept the position ; but, after 
he did step into the office, he performed its duties with 
most praiseworthy despatch and with unusual ability. 
So acceptable were his services, that he was chosen by 
the people at the next election, running over five 
hundred votes ahead of his ticket. His failure of 
election to a second term was in no wise a matter per- 
sonal to him, as there was a combination against others, 
which swept the entire ticket. 

He was then (1861) at the zenith of a professional 
life. He stood among the leaders of his profession. 
He had conquered every obstacle, and had but to attend 
to his duties for a few hours in the day to be independ- 
ent of want, and crowned with professional honors. 

His sister Fannie was married to a wealthy dealer in 



68 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

silver-ware, named William A. Piatt, and died at his 
residence in Columbus, O., in 1856. ^But his mother 
lived ten years longer, and died in 1866. So that with 
his mother, uncle, and wife, and with wealth and 
honor, he would seem to be in a fair way to settle down 
to permanent comfort, and dismiss all those earthly cares 
which so harass and vex the major portion of the 
people. Then, if ever, was a time in his life when he 
could reasonably rest satisfied, and dwell under his own 
vine and fig-tree in peace. But he was less inclined to 
rest then than ever before ; and he hastened on, fulfilling 
the purpose of the almighty Architect of his fortunes. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE BEGINNING OF THE EEBELLION. 

Determination to enlist. — Tlie Burnett Rifles, —Hayes's Opinion 
of the War, —Campaign in West Virginia. — Resignation of Lieut- 
Col. Mathews. — Promotion of Major Hayes. — Military Expedi- 
tions. — Placed in Command of the Twenty-third Ohio. — Pvaid on 
Princeton. 

Although a portion of the political record which 
we insert in this book was made by Mr. Hayes before 
the opening of the War of the Rebellion, yet it will 
serve the reader's purpose better to place it with other 
accounts of his official and public life which will be 
found in subsequent chapters. We enter now upon the 
history and discussion of his life as a soldier. It began 
just at that time in his life when every thing seemed 
to allure him into retirement, and when he could have 
left the field of active life without betraying any public 
confidence, or sacrificing any thing dear to himself. 
But the very first news of the attack on Fort Sumter 
found him eager to take up arms in the sacred 
cause. The Cincinnati Literary Club, of which he had 
become a leading member, organized a military company 
from its own members ; and Hayes was an active par- 



70 LIFE OF KUTHEEFORD B. HAYES. 

ticipant in tlie organization and subsequent meetings 
of the company. The " Burnett Rifles," as it was 
called, was in many respects a remarkable company of 
men. It numbered among its members a large number 
of the wealthiest and most talented men of that great 
city. There were thirty-five lawyers in the company, 
twenty-three of whom became officers in the Union 
army ; and several became generals. The total number 
of commissioned officers which were taken from the 
club could not have been less than seventy-five. 

In all the meetings, — which were then held every 
Saturday night, — Mr. Hayes was active and zealous in 
arousing a feeling of loyalty and patriotism. 

On the 4th of January, 1861, Mr. Hayes wrote a 
letter upon the political situation, illustrating his views ; 
from which we quote a paragraph : — 

" South Carolina has passed a secession ordinance, 
and Federal laws are set at nought in the State. Overt 
acts enough have been committed, forts and arsenals 
having been taken, a revenue-cutter seized, and Major 
Anderson besieged in Fort Sumter. Other cotton 
States are about to follow. Disunion and civil war are 
at hand; and yet I fear disunion and war less than 
compromise. We can recover from them. The free 
States alone, if we must go on alone, will make a 
glorious nation. I do not feel gloomy when I look 
forward. The reality is less frightful than the appre- 
hension which we have all had these many years. Let 
us be temperate, calm, and just, but firm and resolute. 



THE BEGINNING OF THE REBELLION. 71 

Crittenden's compromise ! Windham, speaking of the 
rumor that Bonaparte was about to invade England, 
said, ' The danger of invasion is by no means equal to 
that of peace. A man may escape a pistol, no matter 
how near his head, but not a dose of poison.' " 

As early as the 15th of April, 1861, Mr. Hayes 
entertained the idea of entering into the contest, and 
often declared, that, should there be a war, he should 
be in it. Every inducement to remain at home, and 
take his ease, was held out to him ; but he resolutely 
abandoned all idea of rest or of luxury, until his coun- 
try was out of danger. When the three-months' troops 
were called for, he condemned the policy of organizing 
men for so short a period, and declared that he would 
wait a little while, and not be in too great haste, as he 
foresaw a long struggle ; and troops must soon be 
called into service for a term of years. To men about 
him, who said that the war would close in sixty days, 
he promptly predicted a long and bloody war ; and 
declared, that, whatever its length, he should go in to 
fight until the end. 

About four weeks after the massacre of the ISIassa- 
chusetts troops in Baltimore, he wrote to a friend as 
follows : viz., — . 

" Mathews and I have agreed to go into the service 
for the war ; if possible, into the same regiment. I spoke 
my feelings to him, which he said were his also ; viz., 
that this was a just and necessary war; that it demanded 
the whole power of the country; and that I would 



72 LIFE OF KUTHERFOED B. HAYES. 

prefer to go into it, if I knew I was to die, or be killed 
in the course of it, rather than to live through and 
after it, without taking any part in it." ««— 

Mathews and Hayes were fast friends, and in this 
matter their ideas and desires were completely in uni- 
son. They together tendered their services to Gov. 
Dennison, and together were accepted. It was the 
governor's idea to place each in command of a regi- 
ment under the first call for three-years' men ; but 
neither of them would consent to be separated, or to 
be placed at the head of a regiment. With character- 
istic modesty they reasoned that the colonel should be 
an experienced officer, who could teach his subordinates 
the art of war ; and they dwelt upon their unfitness, 
as civilians, for so important a post. So it was agreed 
that the governor should appoint some regular army 
officer as colonel, and they would go out in some subor- 
dinate position. Very soon after, a sufficient number 
of companies came into the volunteer camp from various 
parts of the State to organize into a regiment ; and the 
governor sent for Hayes and Mathews to take th,eir 
commissions as major and lieutenant-colonel. These 
were promptly accepted, Hayes preferring the office 
of major ; and, with W. S. Rosecrans as colonel, the 
Twenty-third Ohio Volunteers was prepared for war. 
But, before the regiment was called into the field. Col. 
Rosecrans was promoted to a brigadier-general, and 
another graduate of West Point, Col. Scammon, was 
commissioned in his place. 



THE BEGINNING OP THE KEBELIJON. 73 

The regiment arrived at Clarksburg, West Va., on 
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, July 27, 1861, and 
was placed on garrison duty, to defend the railroad, 
and protect the border from raids. Clarksburg was a 
strategic point from which the garrison could easily 
and quickly move to the boundary of either Maryland, 
Pennsylvania, or Ohio, while it was also a convenient 
rendezvous for troops intended to operate in West 
Virginia. The fact that he was stationed there was 
one of the great events in Major Hayes's life, and led 
directly to the distinction he afterward attained. Had 
he been sent to the Army of tlie Potomac, or the Mis- 
sissippi River, he would have seen more bloody con- 
tests, and been compelled to endure greater hardships, 
than came to his lot in West Virginia ; but he would 
not have been so often mentioned in the newspapers of 
Ohio, nor would his townsmen and acquaintances have 
taken such an active interest in him and his command. 
The people of Ohio, and especially those of Cincinnati, 
were in constant fear of an attack by the rebels, and 
they often had the best of reasons for believing that 
the enemy was bent on their destruction : hence they 
had an unceasing interest in the movements and mettle 
of the Union troops on the border. The soldiers who 
garrisoned the towns in West Virginia, adjacent to the 
Ohio State line, were looked upon as defenders of Ohio, 
and received the scrutinizing attention of the people 
of Ohio ; while other troops, engaged in deadlier strife 
and more arduous marches, were naturally overlooked 



74 LIFE OF EUTnEEFOED B. HAYES. 

and forgotten. Had Major Hayes been engaged in the 
more active campaigns of the war, he would, doubtless, 
have received more speedy promotion, and would have 
been regarded as a greater soldier ; but all that would 
have so changed the current of his life, that it may be 
regarded as providential that he was not so placed. 

Gen. W. S. Rosecrans, former colonel of the Twenty- 
third, was in command of the post at Clarksburg ; and it 
was there that he first drew the attention of the war 
department, by his successful and skilful manoeuvres 
among the bushwhackers and raiders who infested his 
district. The Twenty-third was not allowed much ease, 
and was often sent upon expeditions of more or less 
importance, which involved some skirmishing and more 
marching, without reaping much glory. Major Hayes 
was often connected with those marches ; but in the 
more quiet and inactive months of the summer (1861) 
he served on Gen. Rosecrans's staff as judge advocate. 

It is surprising that Major Hayes did not make more 
enemies during those months ; for, of all the positions 
which the army offered to men, the one most exposed 
to censure and revenge was that of judge advocate. 
It may be that he saw and felt the embarrassments of 
the office, as others have seen and felt them, and for that 
reason remained in the office but so short a period ; yet 
it does not appear that he met with any opposition, but, 
having a kind of charmed existence, he left that posi- 
tion, as he did every other, with the praise and thanks 
of all with whom lie had to deal. He was naturally 



THE BEGINNING OF THE REBELLION. 75 

kind, honest, and just, — qualities which command 
respect everywhere. He rejoined his regiment at 
Sutton before the battle of Carnifex Ferry ; and here, 
too, Lieut-Col. Mathews, who had been detached from 
the regiment on scouting expeditions with several com- 
panies, came into camp, and prepared for the conflict. 
The exigencies of the battle did not, however, call for 
the use of the Twenty-third, which was held in reserve, 
except a flank movement made by a few companies, 
under command of Major Hayes, to threaten the 
enemy's rear. This was done promptly and effectively, 
without loss, and without coming into close action with 
the enemy. Afterwards, in the latter part of Septem- 
ber, the regiment with Major Hayes went into camp with 
the army at Mount Sewall, in front of Lee ; but the bad 
weather and worse roads compelled both armies to fall 
back ; and the Twenty-third took up their quarters at 
Camp Ewing, near Point Lookout, Va. 

From this camp, Lieut.-Col. Mathews went to Ohio 
on leave of absence, and while at home (October) was 
promoted by Gov. Dennison to the command of the 
Fifty-first Ohio Regiment ; and he immediately resigned 
his commission as heutenant-colonel of the Twenty- 
third, and entered upon those campaigns in the south- 
west wliich did him and his State so much honor. 
Major Haj^es was at once promoted to the vacancy 
made by the resignation of Lieut.-Col. Matthews ; and 
by reason of the absence of Col. Scammon, acting 
brigadier-general, Lieut.-Col. Hayes was left in com- 



76 LIFE OF EUTHERFOKD B. HAVES. 

mand of the Twenty-third. The winter of 1861-62 was 
passe'd by Lieut.-Col. Hayes and his command in scout- 
ing over the mountains, and raiding into the interior 
of Virginia, being an occupation attracting but little 
attention, and calling for but little display of bravery, 
yet more trying, by its long marches and useless 
results, than a series of battles would have been. On 
several occasions he had narrow escapes from death ; 
and at one time he fell into an ambuscade, from 
which the bullets hissed all about him, the bush- 
whackers having a cross-fire upon him at short range. 
But he escaped without injury, exhibiting a coolness 
which increased his popularity among his men as a 
military leader. 

On the 1st of May he took a small detachment of 
men, and made a bold attack upon Princeton, which 
was garrisoned by a strong force of the enemy, and 
considered by them a point of considerable strategic 
importance. So unexpected and so impetuous was his 
charge, that the rebels fled at tlie first fire, leaving their 
ammunition and arms behind for the Union troops to 
destroy or carry away. Several prisoners were taken, 
and such works as served for rebel defences were 
destroyed. 



CHAPTER X. 

HAYES DT VIEGINIA. 

First Trial in Manoeuvring Troops under Fire. — Attacked by Supe- 
rior Numbers, — Fighting and Eetreating, — Long Marches. — 
Commissioned as Colonel. — His Attachment to his Old Com- 
mand. — Arrival at Washington. — March into Maryland. 

On the lOth of May, 1862, Lieut.-Col. Hayes had his 
first trial in manceiivring troops imder fire ; and his 
conduct was such as to gain the commendation of his 
commanding officer, and led, as we suppose, to the pro- 
motion which followed so soon after the news of his 
success reached Columbus. He was stationed at a little 
hamlet known as Giles Court House, or Parisburg, in 
Virginia, and had under his command nine companies 
of the Twenty-third, five hundred cavalry, and a 
single section of light artillery, Avhen a force of the 
enem}^, afterwards ascertained to number nearly four 
thousand, and commanded by Gen. Heath, made an 
attack upon the village. It was evident to every one 
who saw the approach of the enemy in two columns, 
that it would be a foolhardy undertaking for that little 
band of Union soldiers to attempt a defence of the un- 
fortified village, while it seemed to be a matter of grave 

77 



78 LIFE OF EUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

doubt whether they would be able to escape without 
capture. If the hasty advice of some of the officers 
had been acted upon, the little force would have started 
off upon the run, and would, of course, have been all 
captured by the enemy's cavalry. The attack had evi- 
dently been arranged with a view to such a result ; as 
the pickets were driven in early in the day, and a 
small flanking party of the rebels was sent by a long 
detour to the rear, for the purpose of picking up the 
stragglers, Lieut.-Col. Hayes comprehended the situa- 
tion at a glance, and, knowing just what work was 
before him, if he escaped at all, went about it deliber- 
ately, yet promptly. There was no sign of danger in 
his movements, no show of anxiety, except a somewhat 
unusual display of firmness and determination. He 
disposed of his cavalry on his right and left, and sent 
out his skirmishers so as to detect any flank movement 
of the foe, and then, calmly and without the least 
appearance of haste, marched back toward the moun- 
tain and his base of supplies. Wherever the ground 
was such that the cavalry could hold the pursuers in 
check, the mfantry were sent back, and then the cavalry 
withdrawn ; and, where the ground was too broken for 
cavalry movements, the infantry confronted the Con- 
federates until the cavalry were safely through the 
defile. Thus deliberately and compactly retreating, the 
little body of troops kept on their way, keeping off 
their pursuers, and, by their formidable column, fright- 
ening the flanking party, who Iiad not come around for 



HAYES IN VIRGINIA. 79 

the purpose of fighting, but simply to pick up one by- 
one the straggling band of panic-stricken soldiers they 
expected to see. Lieut.-Col. Hayes was so calm and un- 
concerned in his movements, giving his orders one after 
the other as each was obeyed, and so completely out- 
witting his opponent, who was expecting a sure victory 
by some break in his lines, that the men partook largely 
of his spirit, and executed their orders promptly, and 
with a feeling that it was, after all, a matter of form ; 
for, with such a man as Hayes showed himself to be, 
defeat was an impossibility. They shouted, and tossed 
their hats, whenever he passed by, notwithstanding 
their hunger and fatigue, showing him how well they 
appreciated his generalship, and at the same time giving 
the pursuers an idea that the shouts were the greetings 
of re-enforcements. For more than five miles, they 
thus retreated, keeping the foe at a safe distance, and at 
last, toward evening, evading him altogether by disap- 
pearing, with but little loss, into the fortifications of the 
main army, and soon after marching again to the front 
with re-enforcements. Hayes did not, however, escape 
without a wound, as he was struck by a piece of shell, 
and partially disabled, while under fire ; but this did not 
disturb his equanimity at the time, nor unfit him for 
active service afterward. 

On the 13th of July, the Twenty-third Regiment, 
then encamped at Flat Top INIountain, was ordered to 
report at once at a station called Green Meadows, not 
far from Pack's Ferry, on New River ; from which place 



80 LIFE OF EUTHEEFORD B. HAYES. 

they were again hurried, Aug. 15, to Camp Piatt, on 
the Kanawha River, a distance of a hundred and four- 
teen miles, which, it is said, they traversed on foot in 
a little less than three days. From this point, they 
were taken on transports to the Ohio River, and up 
that river to Parkersburg, where they took the cars for 
Washington, D.C., arriving there on the 24th. 

Early in the month of August, he was promoted to 
be colonel of the Seventy-ninth Ohio Regiment, with- 
out any previous intimation to him that such an honor 
was intended. It appears that the promotion did not 
meet with his approval, and his soldiers say that his 
acceptance of the position was not certain, had he not 
been prevented, as he was, by an exciting campaign. 
He had been with the Twenty-third now more than a 
year : he was acquainted with them, understood their 
wants and character, while they were equally well 
acquainted with his manner and disposition. He loved 
them, and they loved him. He had rather be a lieuten- 
ant-colonel with them than a colonel with strangers. 
While he hesitated, Gen. Lee crossed into Maryland 
with his great Confederate army, and, amid the wildest 
excitement, troops were called in from all points to 
oppose him. Exaggerated reports of the mighty hosts 
who were marching toward Baltimore, Harrisburg, and 
Philadelphia, awakened the patriotism and heroism of 
every true soldier. Hayes's regiment had been incor- 
porated in Gen. J. D. Cox's division of Burnside's 
command, in the Army of the Potomac; and while he 



HAYES IN VIEGINIA. 81 

was considering the question of accepting the promotion, 
and a little uncertain whether the issuing of his new 
commission left him in the service or out of it, the 
Twenty-third was ordered into Maryland, and he 
resolved at all events to stand by the boys until that 
contest was over. 

The battle of South Mountain, Sept. 14, 1862, would 
have been recorded in the annals of our nation as a 
great battle, had it not been followed the very next 
day by the more fatal and important contest at An- 
tietam ; and to that we must devote the next chapter. 

'z. 



CHAPTER XI. 

BATTLE OF SOUTH MOUNTAIN". 

View of Catoctin Valley. — Appearance of the Army. — The Order 
to advance. — The Skirmish Line. — The Discharge of Grape and 
Canister. — Col. Hayes wounded. — Regiment under Major Com^j. 
—Return to the Field of Col. Hayes. — Charges by the Twenty-third 
Ohio. 

The morning of the 14th of September, 1862, dawned 
over the rugged cliffs of the Upper Potomac, disclosing 
a scene such as the world has seldom witnessed, and 
which to this country was wholly new and strange. A 
vast army, countless to the spectator, began, with the 
first light of day, to crowd into the Catoctin Valley 
from the Potomac River, and to press in between the 
converging cliffs of the Catoctin and South Mountain 
ranges of mountains in pursuit of another large army. 
The rebel Gen. Lee, with an army of sixty thousand 
men, had passed up that same valley, and crossed the 
South Mountain Range at Turner's Gap, only the day 
before, leaving his rear guard of five brigades, under 
Gen. D. H. Hill, to defend that pass, and hold the top 
of the mountain, until Gen. McLaws should capture 
the traitorous or imbecile Miles and his unfortunate 



BATTLE OF SOUTH MOUNTAIN. 83 

troops at Harper's Ferry, and have time to join Lee at 
Hagerstown. The whole Union army was in motion 
that morning ; and from the cragged peaks on either 
side of the road, cut through the crest of the mountain 
at Turner's Gap, the Confederate signal corps looked 
down upon the broad green valley, and noted the move- 
ments of their pursuers. At the foot of the mountain 
lay the little village of Middletown, with its scattered 
dwellings partially hid in the trees. The various wind- 
ings of its little creek were clearly marked from that 
point away to where the valley emerged into a wide 
plain, through which the glittering, shimmering Potomac 
peacefully pursued its way to the sea. It was a magnifi- 
cent sight. Roads crossing each other at irregular inter- 
vals traversed the valley, dividing white fields of grain, 
and green patches of grassland, and losing themselves 
in the ragged mountains upon either side, or seeming to 
descend into the Potomac through the green curtain of 
shrubbery which covered its banks. Through all those 
roads, over many of those fields, and filing down the 
mountain-paths, a great host of armed men was hurry- 
ing on, with its flags fluttering in the breeze, its bayonets 
gleaming in the increasing light, and its background of 
dark blue uniforms assuming various shades as it wound 
into a nearer field, or wheeled into a cross-road. Swift 
horsemen played back and forth from column to column, 
like shuttles in a loom ; while here and there the polished 
guns of some light battery, or the bright trapping of 
a squadron of cavalry, would gleam for a moment as 



84 LIFE OP KUTHEEFOr.D B. HATES. 

it passed over some hillock, and disappeared quickly 
among the trees, or into some depression in the road- 
way. 

Far down the valley, the rebel observers could see the 
dark winding lines of the left wing of the Union army 
as it left the main body, and crept along toward the 
mountains by the road which led over the same range 
they occupied, but far to the southward of them. Ah ! 
as they sat and watched the approaching foe hastening 
through fields, and galloping up by-roads, and as they 
glanced back at the blue hills beyond the Potomac, 
and felt that soon must come that conflict when hissing 
Minie-balls, and crashing, screaming shells, would make 
a hell of those sylvan shades around them, they could 
not have been human, if they did not yearn to be back 
in the sunny homes beyond the hazy horizon. 

To the troojDS of the national army, who had en- 
camped the previous day at the base of the moun- 
tains in the village of Middletown, and among whom 
was the enthusiastic Twenty-third Ohio and its com- 
mander. Col. Hayes, the scene was less extensive, but 
not less grand. As the light of dawn appeared beyond 
Catoctin cliffs, and began to reveal the outlines of the 
valley, and as they who had arrived in the gloom of 
the previous night started from their hard and comfort- 
less beds of grass or wood, the towering mountains, 
the dark woodland, and the half-revealed multitude 
moving about them, must have been fidl of weird and 
exciting interest. To the soldier who knows not the 



BATTLE OF SOUTH MOUNTAIN. 85 

plans of his leaders, and to whom every movement is 
full of uncertainty and imbued with a kind of romantic 
adventure, the features of the strange landscapes 
among which he finds himself are matters of great 
importance, and make an indelible impression. Such 
was the effect of that scene upon those who saw it that 
day. Those warriors may forget from whose cup or 
canteen they drank their morning coffee ; they may not 
recall the names of those from whom they borrowed 
hard-bread, or with whom they divided their little 
store of sugar ; and they may even fail to remember 
what companies of artillery camped with them on the 
previous night, or how many regiments filed off into 
the woods on their right or left : but the plains, the 
hills, the trees, the rocks, are fixed in their minds, and 
wiU never fade away. And to them, who, on that 
fatal morning, saw the hasty dismounting of staff offi- 
cers bearing orders to subordinate commanders, and 
heard that quick, sharp roU of the drums, and that 
order to " fall in," the mountain before them was a 
painful feature in the landscape. They knew not 
McClellan's plans ; but they did know that they had 
been marching toward this mountain, that they were 
following Lee's army, and that the road in front of 
them led up and over toward the enemy's camp. They 
knew by the flags, and the stories of the pickets 
relieved at daylight, that the rebels held the top of the 
mountain, and intended to keep it if possible. They 
knew, too, by the shaping of past events, and the mass- 



86 LIFE OP BUTHERFOED B. HAYES. 

ing of troops at Middletown, that there was to be a 
battle up in the trees among those peaks and ledges 
which flanked the coveted pass. Some of them felt 
that morning, w^en they packed away their blankets, 
and strapped together their canteens and tin cups, that 
their hands would never unpack or unstrap them again. 
Men looked up to that pile of wooded rocks before 
them, and shuddered while they waited for the com- 
mand to move forward. Yet survivors of that day tell 
us that the men under Hayes's command joked one 
another upon the prospect ; and one exclaimed, as he 
saw his comrade trying to tie his plate to his belt- 
strap, — 

" Say, Bill, hadn't you better give me that plate ? 
You won't need it again." And they say the same 
soldier was found that night with his plate still tied to 
his belt, but broken and rent by the piece of a shell 
which laid him dead on the side of the mountain. 

Another soldier from Bellefontaine said to his lieu- 
ant, — 

" It looks squally up yonder, and I shouldn't wonder 
if some of us never got to the top. So I've written a 
letter home, and it's in my cartridge-box, between the 
leather and the tin ; and, should I get knocked over, 
just send it along for me." 

That evening he was among the missing ; and neither 
his lieutenant nor his bereaved family knew just where 
nor how he died, until a prisoner taken at Fredericks- 
burg, Va., who had on that cartridge-box, unconsciously 



BATTLE OF SOUTH MOUNTAIN. 87 

brought the letter therein into our camp, where it was 
accidentally discovered. That prisoner saw the writer 
of the letter as he fell off the cliff, struck by a musket- 
ball, during one of the fiercest charges, and afterwards 
took from the dead body the cartridge-box and belt ; and 
thus was his name taken from the " missing," and added 
to the list of " killed at South Mountain." 

The soldiers of the Twenty-third had not seen 
such a campaign before, nor had they been often under 
fire ; yet the vicissitudes of army life had in various 
ways depleted their number, until the roll-call that 
morning showed but three hundred and ten men, — a 
small company when compared with the confident one 
thousand which left Camp Dennison a little more than 
a year before. But no paucity of numbers affected 
their courage. Their commander remained with them 
while he was honorably at liberty to go home. He did 
not seem to fear ; and why should they ? 

It was seven o'clock that morning, when the order 
came to move up the mountain towards Turner's Gap, 
keeping well out to the right and left of the Boons- 
borough road, which was the only highway leading 
to the gap. A detachment of Pleasanton's cavalry 
moved up the road, closely followed by a light battery 
and the Twenty-third Ohio, together with several other 
regiments of Cox's command. The Twenty-third struck 
to the left of the Boonsborough highway, and ascended 
by another, half-abandoned, ragged roadway running 
over the range some distance to the south of Turner's 
Gap. 



88 LIFE OF EUTHEEFOED B. HAYES. 

It was not long before the clambering troops began 
to see little wliiffs of white smoke in the edge of the 
woodland above them ; then came the hum of bullets 
high over their heads, closely followed by the reports of 
muskets, indicating that they were approaching the 
enemy's skirmish lines. As they drew still nearer and 
began to advance in line of battle, over stumps, bowl- 
ders, fences, trees, through ravines and over knolls, the 
mountain-side became steeper, the cracking of musketry 
more incessant ; while the bursting of shells, and hiss- 
ing of solid shot, made the air overhead vocal with 
hideous, blood-curdling sounds. 

It was expected, by the general commanding, that 
Cox's division would be able to turn the flank of Hill's 
troops, and then bring to bear the whole body of 
the Federal troops arrayed in his front, and defeat him 
while in the confusion consequent upon such a manoeu- 
vre, when successful. But the ability and courage of 
the enemy had been underrated ; for when the rebel 
general. Garland, with his brigade of veterans, ad- 
vanced down the mountains to meet the Union troops, 
he was not left unsupported, nor was every thing staked 
on his success. Hence, when that brave Confederate 
general was killed, and his troops almost annihilated by 
the impetuous charges and steady firing of the Union 
troops. Gen. Longstreet, who had meantime superseded 
Gen. Hill, skilfully confronted the victors with the 
brigades of Anderson, Rodes, and Ripley, three lines 
deep, intrenched behind logs, stone walls, trees, and 



BATTLE OF SOUTH MOUNTAIN. 89 

bowlders. As Col. Scammon's brigade, in which was the 
Twenty-third, advanced upon the enemy that morning, 
the enemy opened fire from their artillery posted on the 
knolls in the rear of their line of battle ; and so close 
was the range, and so accurate their aim, that the 
rebel grape, canister and musket-balls, literally stripped 
the trees of every leaf, and turned up the ground 
about the advancing soldiers as if it had been system- 
atically ploughed. Men could not breast such a tor- 
rent, and live. As the Twenty-third clambered over 
a rising stretch of ground toward the enemy, a blind- 
ing discharge of grapeshot met them full in the face, 
and, in an instant, more than a hundred of them lay 
upon the ground, dead or wounded. Five officers were 
struck by the storm of missiles ; and among them Col. 
Hayes went down with a broken arm. 

Yet the brave regiment did not retreat, save when 
directed to seek the cover of rocks near by them ; and 
they obeyed the orders of Major J. G. Comity, a brave 
officer who succeeded to the command, as briskly and 
promptly as though the ground was not strewn with 
their dying comrades, or the next movement did not 
threaten to sweep them away in the same manner. It 
was a fearful ordeal, — more dreadful, because the word 
had passed from man to man that the colonel was killed. 

While they paused for re-enforcements, and just as a 
dangerous flank movement of the enemy was discovered, 
there was a momentary suspense while the troops hardly 
knew which foe to face ; when suddenly Col. Hayes, with 



h ! 



90 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

a handkerchief tied around his arm, appeared to his 
surprised command, and, against the protests of friends, 
again took the lead. His return awakened great enthu- 
siasm ; and the little remnant of his regiment was ready 
to be in the fight again. They had not long to wait, 
before the advance of the flanking party brought them 
again into close action, and kept them in battle through- 
out the entire day. 

That was a sad, and a glorious day for the Twenty- 
third, — sad, inasmuch as they had seen their comrades 
mowed down with the murderous discharge of grape ' 
and canister. They had heard their cries from between 
the lines, when it was impossible to help them : they 
had seen their friends, all through the day, dropping 
before the missiles of the enemy, or falling bleeding 
in the hand-to-hand encounter. It was glorious in 
the recollections of their steady advance, their im- 
petuous defeat of two divisions, their gallant charge 
with the Forty-fifth New York and One Hundredth 
Pennsylvania, saving the battery which was already in 
the clutches of an exultant enemy, and in holding 
their ground with subUme heroism when wounds 
and death had left but one hundred to face the 
foe. Their flag was in rags, having been again and 
again riddled by the bullets and shell of the enemy. 
Their commander had fought, until, fainting with loss 
of blood, he was carried from the field, for which valor 
he was afterwards complimented by Gen. Cox. 

They felt then that they were no longer unreliable 



BATTLE OF SOUTH MOUNTAIN. 91 

troops, but veterans ; and ever after, in the many battles 
tliey fought, the lesson and experience of South Moun- 
tain, and the conduct of their commander there, kept 
them cool under fire, and made them irresistible in a 
charge. 



CHAPTER Xn. 

WOUNDS AXD PEOMOTION". 

Effect of his Wound at South Mountain. — Search for him hy his Wife. 
—Promoted to be Colonel of the Twenty-third. —Placed in Com- 
mand of the Kanawha Division. — Prevents Morgan's Escape 
from Ohio. — A Quiet Year of Camp Life. 

When Col. Hayes was carried from the battlefield, 
he was taken down the mountain to a little old house 
already occupied by a score or more of wounded men. 
He was so exhausted, that his brother-in law. Dr. Webb, 
who was surgeon of his regiment, scarcely hoped to 
save his life ; while Col. Hayes himself abandoned all 
hope of saving his arm from amputation. There he lay 
through the eventful daj^s of Antietam, while his regi- 
ment were crowning themselves with honor, being in the 
thickest of that fight, and having their colors and many 
comrades shot down as they charged upon the foe. 

Meantime the reports of the battle, with lists of the 
killed and wounded, appeared in the Cincinnati papers ; 
and, the tidings being communicated to Col. Hayes's 
wife, she hastened to find him, having nothing but the 
fact of his having been wounded at South Mountain to 
guide her. As the wounded had been carried back from 

92 



WOUNDS AND PKOMOTION. 93 

the field, and left in the houses, barns, and sheds for 
more than twenty miles to the rear, that devoted woman 
made many a useless trip, looked upon many a ghastly 
spectacle, before she came at last to the house where 
her husband lay. 

A writer in " The Cincinnati Commercial " thus 
speaks of Col. Hayes as he was seen the day after the 
battle of Antietam : — 

" After going the rounds of the hospitals in and adja- 
cent to the field of Antietam, Capt. Looker was associ- 
ated with Surgeon-Gen. Weber and other Ohio surgeons 
as a detail to escort an ambulance train filled with 
wounded soldiers down to Frederick, Md., where all 
the churches, hotels, and public buildings of all kinds, 
had been prepared for their reception. 

" On the way down, and reaching a little village called 
Middletown just after dark, the citizens of the town 
insisted that the train should stop long enough for them 
to supply the wounded men with cups of coffee, tea, &c. 
This request was complied with ; and the train lay there 
three or four hours. 

" During the delay, Surgeon-Gen. Weber and Capt. 
Looker walked through the village, making inquiries 
for Ohio soldiers, and, much to their surprise, learned 
that Lieut.-Col. R. B. Hayes had been brought there 
from South Mountain, where he was wounded (and 
only a few miles from Middletown), and was then be- 
lieved to be somewhere in the village. Procuring a 
lantern, they began to explore the town in search of 



94 LIFE OF EUTHEEFORD B. HAYES. 

Col. Hayes. After visiting about a dozen houses, in 
whicli were wounded officers and soldiers, and holding 
the light of the lantern in the faces of the poor fellows, 
they came across a little, old, dilapidated two-story brick 
building, and going up a rickety pair of stairs, and 
through a narrow hall, flanked on both sides with 
diminutive rooms, were rewarded by the discovery of 
Col. Hayes, lying in bed, and attended by his faithful 
and loving wife and his brother-in-law, surgeon of 
his regiment, Dr. Joe Webb. Mrs. Hayes had only 
just found her husband, after having looked through all 
the hospitals from Washington City to Middletown. 

" The colonel and his lady expressed delight at the 
visit from Ohio men, and permitted Surgeon-Gen. 
Weber to examine the wound. After a pleasant chat, 
and a detailing of news from home, the Ohio gentlemen 
took their departure. It seems, that, a few hours before 
the visit, the colonel, fearing mortification, had requested 
Surgeon Webb to amputate his arm ; but Dr. Webb had 
decided not to do so, and to make an attempt to save 
the arm. After examining the wound, Surgeon-Gen. 
Weber corroborated Dr. Webb's decision, and left both 
the colonel and his good wife in the best of spirits. 

" The parting words of the colonel to his Ohio visitors, 
as he lay there suffering with his wound, were, ' Tell 
Gov. Tod that Fll he on hand again shortly' His 
future career proved that he was always ' on hand,' 
where hard fighting and sound judgment were needed, 
during the remainder of the War of the Rebellion." 



WOUNDS AND PROMOTION. 95 

Col. Hayes suffered severely, and was unable to enter 
upon active duty for several weeks. The regiment, after 
many marches and counter-marches, was at last (Oct. 
8) ordered back to West Virginia, with the Kanawha 
division ; and it arrived at Clarksburg on the 15th of 
October. While there, the men learned that Col. 
Scammon had been promoted to brigadier-general, and 
that Gov. Dennison had revoked the commission to Col. 
Hayes to command the Seventy-ninth, and issued a new 
commission to him as colonel of the Twenty-third ; and 
their demonstrations of gratification were as deeply felt 
as they were boisterous. He did not, however, person- 
ally command the regiment in any subsequent battles, 
as he was detached from it soon after his recovery, to 
act as brigadier-general, and (Dec. 25, 1862) placed in 
command of the celebrated Kanawha division, to which 
the Twenty-third was attached. From that time to the 
next March, Col. Hayes had a season of quiet; and the 
soldiers found at the Kanawha Falls an opportunity to 
recuperate their worn and shattered bodies. But on 
the 15th of March, the division was ordered to Charles- 
ton, Va., from which point it made many raids into the 
Confederacy, destroying stores of salt, ammunition, 
clothing, and crops, and capturing many prisoners. A 
writer who has since been on the most intimate terms 
with Col. Hayes, writes of one of these expeditions, 
which is especially deserving of record : 

" In June, 1863, an expedition comprishig three bri- 
gades (one of them that of Col. Hayes), with cavalry 



96 LIFE OF EUTHERFOED B. HAYES. 

and artillery, was despatched to South-western Virginia, 
with the view of capturing Saltville, and breaking up 
the Virginia and Tennessee Railway. Starting from 
the Upper Kanawha, the expedition marched through a 
frightfully wild and rugged country, and, after crossing 
several ranges of mountains, struck and tore up the 
railway, raided the neighboring country, and, returning 
by a tedious and difficult march, arrived within fifteen 
miles of Fayetteville, July 23. During all this time, the 
command had been entirely separated from mail com- 
munication, and knew nothing of the stirring events 
that had happened in other departments, including the 
surrender of Vicksburg, Lee's defeat at Gettysburg, 
and John Morgan's raid north of the Ohio. Col. 
Hayes, therefore, rode forward to Fayetteville to obtain 
information, and, on reaching the town, galloped at once 
to the telegraph-office, where^ without dismounting, he 
called to the operator through the open window, 
' What's the news ? ' The man at the instrument 
turned, and was about to give him a brief history of 
events, when a signal came over the wires ; and the 
man said, ' Hold, I'm called,' Col. Hayes then went 
into the office, and read the following despatch as it 
came from the instrument : — 

" ' John Morgan is crossing the Scioto at Piketon, O., 
and is making for Gallipolis. He will arrive there day 
after to-morrow.' 

" This was startling news to Col. Hayes. ' John 
Morgan in Ohio,' he exclaimed, ' and making for 



WOUNDS AND PEOMOTION. 97 

Gallipolis!' The operator then explained that the 
rebel raider was hardly beset by Union cavalry, and 
that he was evidently seeking escape from the State by 
crossing the Ohio River at Gallipolis, where there was 
no adequate force to dispute his passage, or to protect 
large quantities of supplies which had been collected 
there. Col. Hayes comprehended the situation in an 
instant, and as quickly sent this despatch flashing over 
the wires : — 

" ' Are there any steamboats at Charleston ? ' 

' "Yes, two,' was the almost immediate answer. 

" ' Send them up to Fayetteville at once,' Hayes 
responded. 

" ' All right,' replied the Charleston quartermaster. 

" Col. Hayes, without having received another word 
of information, jumped into the saddle, and galloped 
back to camp fifteen miles. He reached camp at night- 
fall, and laid the whole matter before Gen. Scammon, 
Avho gave him permission to take two regiments, and a 
section of artillery, and hasten to Gallipolis. He then 
announced his purpose to the soldiers, who greeted his 
orders with wild hurrahs. In half an hour his little 
column was in motion, groping its way along the rough 
mountain-road. The night was moonless, and the 
darkness sometimes so intense, that the regiments were 
compelled to halt until the clouds cleared, before they 
could go forward. All night the weary march was 
continued; and, just as dawn began to streak the 
summits of the mountains, the column, reaching a high 



98 LIFE OF KUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

point overlooking the Kanawlia Valley, near Fayette- 
ville, saw the two steamboats rounding a bend, and 
coming up the river. The troops and the boats reached 
the wharf almost simultaneously ; and, within an hour, 
the whole command had embarked, and the steamers 
were under full headway down the Kanawha, their 
decks strewn with tired and sleeping soldiers. By 
daylight the next morning, the boats reached Gallipolis, 
and the troops' disembarked, and took positions to 
defend the town. But ]\Iorgan had been advised by 
spies of their approach when six miles away, and 
turned his column northward toward Poraeroy, another 
point on the Ohio. Col. Hayes instantly re-embarked, 
and steamed up the river to overtake him. He arrived 
in time to go out and meet the enemy while advancing 
upon the town ; but Morgan's ofiBcers were not long 
in discovering that something tougher was in front of 
them than militia regiments ; and they suddenly drew 
off, remounted, and made for Bufiington's Island, a 
point still farther up the river. Here Morgan seized 
a steamboat, and had ferried over about three hundred 
of his men, when Col. Hayes arrived, seized the boat, 
and put a stop to any further progress in that line. 
Morgan himself had crossed the river; but, seeing that 
his main body was about to be cut off, he recrossed, 
and remained with his soldiers to share their fortunes. 
After some fighting, he drew off again, and made for 
other points up the river. But the last opportunity 
for escape had passed; and the Confederate raiders, 



WOUNDS AND PROMOTION. V^ 

hardly beset by Gens. Hobsoii and Shackelford, were 
speedily driven to the wall, and forced to surrender." 

Col. Hayes returned to Virginia immediately after 
the capture of Morgan, whose escape would have been 
certain, but for Col. Hayes's prompt action, and decided 
presentation of the matter to Gen. Scammon. And 
though no action or campaign of historic interest called 
attention to his command for nearly a year afterwards, 
yet it was a period of activity and ceaseless vigilance. 
That period of silence and comparative activity was 
broken, however, April 29, 18G4, when the Kanawha 
division was ordered to join the forces gathering 
near Brownston, on the Upper Kanawha River, from 
which point a raid was to be made on the Virginia 
and Tennessee Railroad in accordance with Gen. 
Grant's order for a general advance of all our armies. 
Then began a series of forced marches and hard-fought 
battles, in which Col. Hayes appeared in his conspicu- 
ous position as brigadier-general, and hence deserving 
of more particular notice. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

BATTLE OP CLOYD MOUNTAIN". 

Marcli up the Kanawlia. — Approach to Cloytl Mountain. — Hayes's 
Charge across the Meadow. — The Contest at the Fortifications. — 
Capture of Guns. — Death of the Confederate General. — Destruc- 
tion of the Eaih'oad. — Long and Dangerous March. — Arrival at • 
Staunton, Va. 

Gen Grant considered that the disturbance of Gen. 
Lee's raikoad connections with the south was one of 
the necessary preliminaries to the great campaign lie 
proposed to conduct toward Richmond; and Gen. 
Crook, who was in command in West Virginia, was 
ordered to take all his available force, and cut the line 
of the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad near the bridge 
over the Upper Kanawha, generally called the New 
River. His entire command, including Col. Hayes's 
brigade, did not exceed sixty-five hundred men ; and 
it must have appeared to him like a forlorn hope to 
attempt sach a march into the enemy's country. Of 
course, he did not know that Sigel was moving up 
the Shenandoah Valley, Sherman forcing his way to 
Atlanta, Grant moving toward Richmond, and almost 
numberless expeditigns starting out to attract the atten- 



BATTLE OF CLOYD MOUXTALN-. 101 

tioii of the enemy, and prevent a concentration of the 
rebels at any one phice. Hence when, after those 
dreadful hardships in climbing cragged mountains in 
snow and ice, wading deep streams, and making forced 
marches even into the night, he was told that the last 
range of rugged hills which lay between him and the 
railroads was covered with the enemy, and formidable 
with fortifications, he had good reason to doubt the 
result. But there was no other course to pursue than 
that marked out for him ; and, consequently, that rocky 
and wooded eminence must be stormed and taken by 
some of his troops. Naturally, as if it were a matter 
of course, the choice fell upon Hayes's brigade, who had 
seen so many battles, it was considered as invincible 
as human beings ever get to be in time of war. Xo 
estimate could be made of the number of the rebels, as 
they were hid in the dense woods ; but the continuous 
volleys of musketry, and the rapid discharge of cannon, 
g9,ve notice that they were not a small body. 

They had chosen a strong position, and fortified three 
crests, 'or spurs, of the moimtain, each behind and 
higher than the other ; so that, should they be driven 
from one, the works in the rear would cover their 
retreat; while in front of them was a smooth, open 
meadow, some six hundred yards wide, which the 
Federal troops must cross within easy range before 
they came to the defences upon which the rebels relied, 
consisting of a deep stream of water, and a rugged 
ascent made difficult by fallen trees and hidden pits. 



102 LIFE OF EUTHERFOED B. HAYES. 

Col. Hayes's brigade formed in line on the side of 
this meadow, and, at the word of command, sprang 
forward at a double-quick pace ; while the enemy 
ox)ened all its batteries and musketry upon them. Col. 
Hayes led the brigade, and moved about from point to 
point during the charge with such coolness and alacrity, 
that he kept his line steady, and infused into the sol- 
diers the utmost confidence in his ability to lead them 
to victory. When the meadow was passed, a short 
halt was made by the stream, to dress the line, and give 
such necessary orders as the task before them seemed 
to demand ; and then, with a yell, they rushed into the 
brush, climbing like squirrels, and as fearless of the 
shot which riddled the trees, as those animals would be 
of falling acorns. Upward they clambered in such hot 
haste, and with such an even line, that, before the 
enemy could ram home the second charge, they were 
swarming about the rude breastwork, and clubbing 
their empty muskets to strike down the gunners. As- 
tonished and dismayed, the rebels made a hasty retreat, 
leaving behind them two handsome guns, into the 
mouth of one of which a boy in the Twenty-third thrust 
his cap, to denote that it was his prize, and then rushed 
on with his comrades to charge and capture the second 
crest. The movement upon the second position was 
but a continuation of the first charge ; and, no time 
being allowed the rebels to re-form, they fled like sheep 
to their last stronghold. Here being re-enforced by a 
fresh arrival of troops, and knowing that this offered 



BATTLE OF CLOYD MOUNTAIN". 103 

tlio last means of defence, tliey re-formed, and met the 
Union forces in ti most desperate and heroic contest. 
It was one of the sharpest conflicts of the war. It 
continued but a few minutes; yet it was so close a 
fight, that men seized each other, and went rolling down 
among the rocks. The rebels tried to load their guns 
when the Union soldiers were but a few paces away, 
and then bodily threw themselves in the path to delay 
the charge until the guns could be hauled away. But 
the death of Gen. Jenkins, commanding the Confeder- 
ates, and a sudden movement toward their rear, — led 
by Col. Hayes, wlio, with great enthusiasm, yelled and 
fought with his men, — disconcerted the brave defend- 
ers ; and soon such as could escape fled down the moun- 
tain toward the railroad which had been intrusted to 
their defence. 

Dubhn Station, on the Virginia and Tennessee Rail- 
road, is but eight miles beyond Cloyd Mountain ; and 
Gen. Crook, fearing that the enemy might attempt to 
erect fortifications, hurried his command, and reached 
the railroad that night, which he destroyed for eight 
miles toward Lynchburg from Dublin Station, and, 
after a short artillery battle, burned the long bridge 
over New River, thus completely and specifically obey- 
ing his instructions. 

Without waiting to be attacked in a place where ho 
could be so easily surrounded, he at once began his 
march to the northward, notwithstanding the men were 
footsore, bruised, and wounded. The route he took, by 



104 LIFE OF KUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

Meadow Bridge and Salt Pond Mountain, led through 
one of the most rugged and dangerous regions of the 
Alleghany jNIountains, being a rocky and wild succession 
of cliffs and chasms, through which meagre roadways 
had been cut, only to be washed away by the spring 
freshets, which were then at their height. It rained 
continually. The mountain torrents raged across their 
paths ; men were drowned at the fords ; teams weve 
carried away in the streams ; the shoes of the soldiers 
fell into pieces ; their soaked clothing was rent by the 
least strain, their guns were rusty and unserviceable, 
and their supply of food exceedingly limited, and of a 
poor quality. Besides these hardships, they were some- 
times met by the enemy, and had to fight as well as 
climb. Once they were beset by the same troops 
which they had defeated at Cloyd Mountain ; and this 
exhausted, ragged little army worked their courage up 
to the charging-point, and captured the remaining guns, 
which the rebels had so heroically defended on the 
crests of that battlefield. 

At last the tired army reached their old camping- 
ground at Meadow Bluff, from which place, after a 
short rest, and obtaining fresh supplies, they marched 
to Staunton, Va., joining Hunter's army, June 8. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE ATTACK ON LYNCHBUEG. 

The First Day's March. —Approach to Lynchburg. — The Appearance 
of the Enemy. — The Night Retreat. — The Heroism of Hayes's 
Brigade. — The Hardships of the March. — Hayes's Defence of 
Biiford's Gap. —Surrounded by the Eebels. — Diary of an Officer. 

On the lOtli of June the march began from Staunton 
to Lynchburg ; and Hayes's brigade led the column, 
marching twenty-three miles that day, and skirmishing 
nearly all the way. And by forced marches, taking in 
Lexington and Buchanan, towns on the James River, 
the army reached the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad, 
some distance west of Lynchburg, on the 14th, and 
moved up the railroad toward that town, arriving 
within sight of the buildings on the 18th of June. 
Here Gen. Crook's command, with Hayes's brigade, 
was sent by a long detour to reach the rear of the city, 
and attack simultaneously with the army in front ; but 
the sudden arrival of large rebel re-enforcements caused 
Gen. Hunter to recall Crook ; and he returned just in 
time to meet the advancing enemy, and assist materially 
in compelling the foe to retire. Yet the rebels con- 
tinued a brisk fire all day, and kept the national forces 

105 



106 LIFE OF EUTHERFOED B. HAYES. 

under arms, and in perpetual expectation of an attack 
from superior numbers. 

On the approacli of darkness, however. Gen. Hunter 
ordered the troops to move to the westward ; and the 
now famous fighting brigade of Col. Hayes was ordered 
to cover the retreat, which they did successfully, 
although tliey had been two days without sleep, and 
one day without food. The enemy followed close upon 
them as they retreated down the railroad ; and often 
Hayes's brigade would make a determined stand to give 
the main body time to get well on its way, and then 
suddenly stop firing, and hasten on after the receding 
column. All the next day they fought and marched, 
and at night (lOtli) they had a sharp conflict with a 
large body of the enemy sent to surprise them ; so that 
another night passed without sleep : and, as if to test 
their powers of endurance to the utmost, they had 
scarcely reached Buford's Gap, on the morning of the 
20th, before the enemy, in great numbers, appeared, 
with the evident purpose of securing the heights, and 
from them shelling the retreating Federals. Hayes 
drew up his brigade in such a manner as to cover 
the approaches to the gap, and held his position all 
that day (20th). At night, when he knew the army 
was far beyond the reach of rebel cannon, he collected 
his men, and hastily retreated. But, as his column 
drew near to the town of Salem, a body of the rebels 
managed to outmarch his almost fainting troops, and, 
by another route, interce^jted him, while another body 



THE ATTACK ON LYNCHBURG. 107 

vigorously pressed liim in tlie rear. It was a situation 
from which but few leaders could have extricated such 
a worn, starving, bleeding company of men. But such 
was Hayes's influence over them, that at his vigorous 
appearance, and enthusiastic call for one more fight, 
they rallied all the strength they had, and, knowing he 
had shared equally with them all the hardships of the 
march, proudly declared they would fight as long as he 
could. So, once more they made a determined charge, 
and cleared the way to the camp, where, at ten o'clock 
at night, they found their first sleep for nearly four 
days. The pursuit was discontinued at North Mountain ; 
but as their provisions were nearly exhausted, and the 
country desolated by previous campaigns, they were 
but half suppUed with food until they arrived at Big 
Sewell Mountain, on the 27th of June, having marched 
one hundred and eighty-three miles in eight days and a 
half. After a short rest at tliis point and at Meadow 
Bluff, the emaciated and worn troops marched to 
Charleston, Va., arriving on the first day of July. 

A contributor for " The New- York Times " sent to 
that paper an extract from the diary of an ofdcer who 
accompanied Col. Hayes in that arduous march ; and it 
is of sufficient interest to find a place in this book. 
One item is as follows : — 

"Jime 19.— Marched all da}', dragging along very 
slowly. The men had nothing to eat, the trains having 
been sent in advance. It is almost incredible that men 
should have been able to endiu^e so much ; but they 



108 LIFE OF EUTHEEFOED B. HAYES. 

never faltered, and not a murmur escaped them. Often 
men would drop out silently, exhausted ; but not a 
word of complaint was spoken. Shortly after dark, at 
Liberty, had a brisk little fight with the enemy's 
advance. Reached Buford's Gap about ten, a.m., of the 
20th. Gen. Crook remained here with Hayes's brigade, 
holding the gap until dark, inviting an attack. The 
army was, however, too cautious to do more than skir- 
mish. After dark we withdrew, and marched all night 
to overtake the command in the advance. Reached 
Salem about nine, a.m. Hunter had passed through 
Salem ; and a body of the enemy's cavalry fell upon his 
train, and captured the greater part of his artillery. 
About the same time Crook was attacked in front and 
rear, and, after a sharp fight, pushed tln^ough, losing 
nothing. Heavy skirmishing all day, and nothing to 
eat, and no sleep. Continued the march until about 
ten, P.M., when we reached the foot of North Mountain, 
and slept. 

"At four, A.M., next morning (22d), left in the 
advance, the first time since the retreat commenced. 
By a mistake, a march of eight miles was made for 
nothing. Thus we toiled on, suffering intensely with 
exhaustion, want of food, clothing, &c. On the 27th, 
a supply-train was met on the Big Sewell Mountain. 
Men all crazy. Stopped and ate; marched and ate; 
camped about dark, a7id ate all night. Marched one 
hundred and eighty miles in the last nine days, fighting 
nearly all the time, and with very little to eat." 



THE ATTACK ON LYNCHBURG. 109 

How like a dream all this appears to us, now that a 
decade intervenes to obscure the view ! Of such stuff 
are the defenders of a righteous government made ; and 
they survive as its safeguard. 



CHAPTER XV. 

SHENAl^DOAH CAIMPAIGN.^ 

Fight with Early. — Col. Hayes covers Another Ketreat. — Sheridan's 
Choice of the Kanawha Division. — Daring Attacks upon Early's 
Lines. — Capture of Prisoners. — Battle at Berryville. — Gen. 
Grant says, " Go in." — Opening of the Battle of Winchester. — 
Charge of Hayes's Brigade. — Heroic Conduct of Col. Hayes.— 
Defeat of Early. — Col. Hayes's Charge. —The Enemy's Flank at 
North Mountain. 

Eaely, who commanded the rebel corps sent from 
Richmond to the relief of Lynchburg, had by this time 
moved mto the valley, and thence into INIaryland. 
Gen. Crook's command was therefore ordered east, 
and, setting out on the 10th, arrived by rail at Martins- 
burg, on the 14th. Here Hayes's brigade remained 
until the 18th, when it advanced to Cobletown, ten 
miles beyond Harper's Ferry, and drove in the enemy's 
pickets. Early, after menacing the defences of Wash- 
ington, withdrew from Maryland, pursued by Wright's 
Sixth Corps, which he turned fiercely upon at Snicker's 
Gap, driving back Wright's advance with consid- 
erable loss. Tlie rebel commander then pursued his 

1 "We are iudel)tea to an ahle and trustworthy writer for much of 
the material iu this and the following chapter. 
110 



SHENANDOAH CAMPAIGN. Ill 

march, and was believed to be making his way up 
the gap toward Gordonville. Accordingly, on the 
22d, Col. Playes was sent out, with his brigade and two 
sections of artillery, to reconnoitre, and while- entirely 
unsupported, and without communication with the 
main body on the other side of the Shenandoah, was 
completely surrounded by two divisions of the enemy's 
cavalry, but fought his way out, and rejoined Gen. 
Crook on the 23d, at Winchester. 

On the 24th Crook advanced, easily driving the 
enemy's cavalry, supposed to be covering the rebel 
retreat up the valley, when suddenly, near Kernstown, 
Early's whole army developed itself in battle array, 
close upon the left flank, and, pouncing upon Crook, 
compelled him to fall back rapidly on Martinsburg. 
Col. Hayes covered this retreat on the left with his 
brigade, and stubbornly resisting Early's impetuous 
advance, saved Crook's forces from material loss, and 
enabled him to draw off safely all his trains and artil- 
lery. A series of marches and counter-marches was 
now inaugurated, which, though bringing on no gen- 
eral engagement, were characterized by many daring 
exploits. 

Gen. Sheridan took command of the new middle 
department on the 7th of August, and selected the 
Kanawha division, including Col. Hayes's brigade, to 
act with liis cavalry in repeated assaults on Early's 
lines. Sheridan was not quite ready for a general 
advance; and it was, in part, the objects of these assaults 



112 LIFE OF KUTHERFOED B. HAYES. 

to keep the enemy occupied, and prevent liim from 
detaching any portion of his force for the assistance 
of Lee at Richmond. Several times Early undertook 
to do this, and as often was prevented by Sheridan's 
vigorous demonstrations, which sometimes rose to the 
proportions of a serious battle. 

Seldom a week passed without two or three of these 
attacks being made ; GoL- Hayes often forcing his way 
with his brigade, not only through Early's formidable 
picket-lines, but through his main line, compelling him 
to develop his full strength, and even to seek new 
positions. So bold and hazardous were these raids, 
that it was often a matter of grave surmise with officers 
and men, in setting out, whether the brigade would 
ever return again to the main body ; and many times 
the chances seemed to be decidedly in favor of its cap- 
ture or annihilation. But it always managed to get back 
in good fighting-trim ; and its habitual success greatly 
increased the confidence of the men in themselves and 
their leader. At length Early was provoked to retah- 
ate, and at daylight, on the 23d of August, made a 
vigorous attack on Sheridan's outposts at Halltown. 
The attack was not followed up, however, and at six, 
P.M., Hayes's brigade sallied out, and drove in the 
enemy's skirmish line, capturing a lot of prisoners from 
Kershaw's division. 

This was a bold and brilliant charge ; and the bewil- 
dered prisoners, as they were captured, exclaimed in 
astonishment, " Who the h— , are you 'uns ? " On the 



SHENANDOAH CAMPAIGN. 113 

24th the sortie was repeated still more successfully, 
and resulted in the capture of sixt}^ officers, and one 
hundred men, all from Kershaw's division. Things 
passed quietly from this time until the evening of 
Sept. 3, when Duval's division, including Col. Hayes's 
brigade, became involved in a severe engagement at 
Berryville. The fighting was desperate ; and, occur- 
ring mostly after dark, the flashes of musketry, 
and exploding of shells, mingling with the fierce roar 
of conflict, made a scene that was frightfully grand. 
This affair was a severe test to the valor of the troops ; 
but their lines, though in imminent jeopardy of being 
overwhelmed, never wavered. The battle ceased by 
mutual consent, about ten o'clock, and the picket-lines 
were re-established. 

Sheridan had by this time pretty thoroughly organ- 
ized the mixed forces placed under his command, and, 
on the 16th of September, was visited by Gen. Grant, 
who states in his report, that he saw that but two words 
of instruction were necessary, " Go in." Accordingly 
Grant gave them, and Sheridan went in. The battle of 
Ox^equan, or Winchester as it is usually called, took 
place on the 19th of September. Early at this time held 
the west bank of Opequan Creek, occupying a series 
of strong heights overlooking, like an amphitheatre, 
an irregular valley, and standing, with regard to each 
other, like a series of detached fortifications. Sheridan 
proposed to pass into the valley by means of a narrow 
ravine, which entered it b}^ a crooked course between 



114 LIFE OF EUTHEEFOED B. HAYES. 

steep and densely M^ooded hills, then dcplo}^, amuse the 
enemy's right, vigorously fight liis centre, and outflank 
and overwhelm his left. It was Early's design, on the 
other hand, to permit the deployment to proceed to a 
certain extent, then overwhelm Sheridan's left, cut his 
army in two, and beat it in detail. 

The battle opened at ten, a.m., when the Sixth Corps 
emerged from the ravine, followed by the Nineteenth, 
and, taking ground to the left, pushed impetuously for- 
ward against Early's right. Crook's command, compris- 
ing Duval's and Thoburn's divisions, now debouched 
into the valley, and, passing behind the other two 
corps, passed rapidly to the right, intending to turn the 
enemy's left, and charge him in the flank and rear. 
Ricketts's division of the Sixth Corps, and Grover's of 
the Nineteenth, leading the attack on the left, charged 
furiously over the broken ground, driving the enemy 
from his sheltered position from behind rocks and thick 
woods, and carrying his first line. Early, in turn, 
seeing every thing was at stake, hurled two fresh divis- 
ions upon Grover and Ricketts, forcing them back in 
great disorder. 

At this moment the battle seemed lost ; but the 
broken regiments were finally rallied, poured into the 
triumpliant enemy a volley which staggered him, then, 
advancing, recovered much of the lost ground, and held 
it, pending Crook's expected attack. This attack is thus 
described by one who participated in the battle with 
the Nineteenth Corps : — 



SHENANDOAH CAMrAIGN. 115 

" At three o'clock the hour of defeat, for Early struck. 
To our right, where I could not exactly see, from the 
rolling nature of the ground, we heard a mighty battle- 
yell, which never ceased for ten minutes, which told 
us that Crook and his men were advancing. To meet 
this yell, there arose from the farthest sweep of the 
isolated wood, where it rounded away toward the rebel 
rear, the most terrific continuous roll of musketry that 
I ever heard. It was not a vollej^ or succession of 
volleys, but an uninterrupted explosion, without a single 
break or tremor. As I listened to it, I despaired of the 
success of the attack; for it did not seem to me possible 
that any troops could endure such a fire. The captain 
of our right company, who was so j)laced that he could 
see the advance, afterward described it as magnificent 
in its steadiness, the division which accomplished it 
moving across the open fields in a single line, without 
visible supports, the ranks kept well dressed in spite of 
the stream of dead and wounded which dropped to the 
rear, the pace being the ordinary quickstep, and the 
men firing at will, but coolly and rarely." 

Col. Hayes's Brigade belonged to the division making 
the movement just described, and therefore bore a lead- 
ing part in this glorious affair. In the course of Crook's 
advance, it occupied the extreme right of the line, and, 
crossing a swampy stream, reached a position covered by 
an almost impenetrable growth of cedar. Through this 
the command pushed on, with Hayes's brigade in front. 
The brigade then advanced rapidly, covered by a light 



116 LIFE OP KUTHEEFORD B. HAYES. 

line of skirmishers, driving the enemy's cavahy. Cross- 
ing two or three open fields, exposed to a scattering fire, 
the brigade reached a slight elevation, where it came 
into full view of the enemy, who opened upon it a 
heavy fire of musketry and artillery. Col. Hayes now 
started his command forward on the double-quick, and, 
dashing through a thick fringe of underbrush, came 
upon a deep slough about fifty yards wide, and stretch- 
ing nearly the whole front of his brigade. The bottom 
•was treacherous ooze ; and the dark water, now churned 
■with flying bullets, was, on the nearer side, about ten 
feet deep. Just beyond it was a rebel battery, thinly 
supported, the slough being itself deemed a sufiicient 
protection. The moment was a critical one. Should 
the brigade undertake to go around the obstruction, it 
would be exposed to a terrible enfilading fire, and, losing 
the entliusiasm of the charge, would certainly be discom- 
fited, and the line of the advance broken in its vital 
part. Col. Hayes hesitated not an instant. Catching 
the situation at a glance, he gave the word, " Forward ! " 
to the men, and then the example, as he spurred into the 
horrible ditch. Horse and rider sank nearly out of 
sight; but the horse swam until he struck the spongy 
bottom, then gave a plunge or two, and sank helplessly 
in the mire. Dismounting, Col. Hayes waded to the 
farther bank, beckoning with his cap to his soldiers, 
some of whom succeeded in joining him. Many others, 
in attempting to follow, were killed or drowned ; but 
soon enough had passed to form a nucleus for the 



SHENANDOAH CAMPAIGN. 117 

brigade ; and then, at Col. Hayes's command, he 
leading, tlicy climbed the bank, and made for the 
guns. 

But the enemy, dismayed by so bold a charge, had 
withdrawn his battery just in time to save it, and now 
confusedly fled. In a few minutes Col. Hayes re-formed 
his brigade on the farther side of the slough, and 
resumed the advance. Then followed a succession of 
brilliant charges, as the enemy attempted, at various 
points, to rally his broken lines. In one of these 
charges Col. Duval was wounded, and carried from 
the field, devolving the command upon Col. Hayes, 
who, though his adjutant-general was shot by his side, 
and men dropped all around him, rode through it all 
as though he possessed a charmed life. 

The division dashed forward in pursuit with all the 
vigor that victory inspires. The passage of the slough 
was the crisis of the fight ; and the rebels now broke to 
the rear in utter confusion. Then the cavalry, which 
had followed the movement of the right, swooped 
down upon them lik6 a hurricane let loose, and scooped 
them up by regiments. The writer already quoted, 
who witnessed this movement from a point farther to 
the left, thus describes it : — 

" At the distance of half a mile from us, too far away 
to distinguish all the grand movements and results, the 
last scene of the victorious diTima was acted out. 
Crook's column (Hayes's division leading) carried the 



118 LIFE OF EUTHEEFOED B. HAYES. 

heights, and forts which crowned them. We could see 
the long, dark lines moving up the stony slopes ; we 
could see and hear the smoke and clatter of mus- 
ketry on the deadly summit ; then we could hear our 
comrades' cheer of victory. Early's battle was soon 
reduced to a simple struggle to save himself from utter 
rout." 

Early now fell back to Fisher's Hill, eight miles 
south of Winchester, and there took up a position 
between the North and Mansanutten Mountains, which 
was regarded as the strongest in the valley. Sheridan 
followed up sharply, and .on the 22d impetuously 
assailed this new stronghold. The tactics of Opequan 
were repeated ; the Sixth and Nineteenth Corps attack- 
ing the enemy's right and centre, and Crook's being 
sent around to the right to envelope his right and rear. 
Col. Hayes's division led this latter movement, and, by 
making a detour through a series of ravines, arrived at 
a point on Early's flank deemed unassailable. Clam- 
bering up the steep side of North Mountain, which was 
covered with an almost impenetrable entanglement of 
trees and underbrush, the division, unperceived, gained 
a position close to and in the rear of the enemy's line, 
and then charged with perfect fury, insomuch that the 
rebels scarcely made any resistance at all, but fled in 
utter rout and terror, leaving many guns, and hun- 
dreds of prisoners, to the victorious soldiers. 

Meanwhile, Early's centre had also been broken ; and 



SHENANDOAH CAMPAIGN. 119 

his army precipitately left the field, a disordered mob. 
Col. Hayes was at the head of his column throughout 
this brilliant charge, not only du-ecting the movement, 
but, by his example of personal daring, greatly adding 
to the enthusiasm and impetuosity of his men. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

SHENANDOAH CAMPAIGN. 

Battle of Cedar Creek. —Early's Niglit March, — Defeat of Tlior- 
burn's Brigade. — Eetreat of Hayes's Troops. — Col. Hayes's Sol- 
dierly Bearing. — Col. Hayes saves Sheridan's Train. — Supposed 
Death of Col. Hayes. — Approach of Sheridan. — Early's Defeat. 
— Hayes's Promotions. — His Military Character. 

Nearly a month elapsed after the battle at North 
Mountain, during which Early thoroughly re-organized 
and largely increased his forces. Sheridan, after raiding 
the valley with his cavalry, had withdrawn to a point 
near Cedar Creek, six miles below Fisher's Hill, and 
had gone on a flying trip to Washington, devolving the 
command upon his senior corps commander, Gen. 
Wright. The troops occupied high ground. Crook's 
corps being, as usual, in advance, Emory's Nineteenth 
on the right and about a mile in the rear of Crook's 
front line, and Wright's Sixth on the right of Emory's, 
the extreme right being covered by a division of cav- 
alry. Crook's forces comprised two divisions (Hayes's 
and Thorburn's), numbering about four thousand men 
in all ; Hayes's line being continuous of that of the 
Nineteenth Corps, and Thorburn occupying a position 



SHENANDOAH CAMPAIGN. 121 

about a mile in advance of Hayes, covered by a slight 
parapet. The nearest force of national cavalry on the 
left was at Fort Royal, eight miles distant. Gen. Crook 
had applied for a division of this force to cover his 
exposed left and an adjacent ford of the Shenandoah, 
and his request had been granted ; but, by some mis- 
chance, the cavalry did not take its position promptly 
as ordered. 

Early, aware of the absence of the cavalry, resolved 
to steal out of his forest covert at Fisher's Hill, pass 
by the Cedar Creek position, then fall upon the Union 
flank and rear. He began this movement dming the 
night of Oct. 18, which, fortunately for him, happened 
to be very foggy and dark. Sending one division 
to the west by way of a diversion, his main col- 
umn, leaving the turnpike, advanced to the right by 
unfrequented paths along the side of the mountain, 
holding on by bushes where the men could scarcely 
otherwise have kept their feet, and twice fording the 
north fork of the Shenandoah. The cavalry which 
Crook fully believed to be in position on his flank 
would, had it really been there, have covered the prin- 
cipal one of these fords, and rendered this movement 
impossible. In its absence. Early succeeded in com- 
pletely passing the flank without giving serious alarm ; 
and an hour before dawn his troops stood in the posi- 
tions assigned them, waiting for the order to attack. 
Just as the first gray light of morning began to appear, 
this order was given ; and simultaneously the familiar 



122 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

rebel yell and a tremendous volley of musketry, stretcli- 
ing all along the flank from far to near, announced the 
presence of the foe. In an instant Early's plunging 
lines swept forward, and, strildng Thorburn's division, 
crushed it in a twinkling. All the guns in the line of 
parapet were, of course, captured ; and the broken regi- 
ments, utterly unable to resist such an overwhelming 
onset, were swept hurriedly to the rear. 

Hayes's division, meanwhile, flew to arms, and, chan- 
ging front, advanced in the direction in which the enemy 
was evidently coming. Its whole strength at this time 
was about fourteen hundred and forty-five effectives, 
not enough to make a respectable skirmish line along 
the front of attack. In a moment the enemy, inspired 
and impelled by his first success, burst from the thick 
woods in front, and was greeted with a full volley 
from Hayes's men. 

But successful resistance was impossible ; and even 
the attempt to resist seemed like madness. In a 
moment more the force which had struck Thorburn 
was closing in upon Hayes's flank and rear, and there 
was no alternative but retreat or capture. In the face 
of imminent peril, the division withdrew with steady 
lines, and, from this to the close of the terrible ordeal 
of surprise and retreat, maintained its organization un- 
broken, not losing so much as a tin plate. Col. Hayes 
directed its movements with the utmost intrepidity, 
leading it backward in good order, and from one hill-top 
to another, and making energetic resistance at every 



SHENANDOAH CAMPAIGN. 123 

possible point. His superb coolness and courage in the 
midst of the frightful rout and confusion acted like 
magic upon his men ; and the example of his division, 
checking each rebel onset with its firm and steady lines, 
re-animated the broken regiments, and fired them with 
its own determined spirit of resistance. 

Overpowered, and driven from its advanced position. 
Crook's command now endeavored to form on the left 
of the Sixth Corps, which, in turn, was soon obliged 
to fall back. While this movement was going on, the 
trains were all rapidly moving off, though imminently 
exposed to capture. Sheridan's headquarters' train 
was particularly in peril ; and a desperate effort to 
save it was made, which proved successful. Just as 
the enemy's triumphant lines were sweeping down upon 
the train, Col. Hayes brought his division to a halt, and 
met them with a firm resistance. Some of his regi- 
ments wavering under the terrible fire. Col. Hayes 
galloped forward to rally his men, and, mounting a 
slight declivity, was confronted at less than a hundred 
yards by the enemy's infantry, which instantly delivered 
a volley of bullets and jelh. Hayes's horse fell dead 
beneath him, 2'>ierced by many bullets, and, by the 
suddenness of its fall while at full speed, flung its 
rider violently out of the saddle. Col. Hayes was ter- 
ribly bruised, and his foot and ankle badly wrenched in 
being disengaged from the stirrup. 

For a moment the soldiers on both sides supposed 
liim to be killed, as he lay upon the ground, benumbed 



124 LIFE OF EUTHEEFOFvD B. HAYES. 

witli. pain, and scarcely able to move. Recovering 
himself, however, he sprang to his feet, and in the midst 
of a perfect storm of bullets from the rebels, who were 
now almost upon him, ran back to his division, which 
he regained without further injury. Meanwhile the 
headquarters' train had escaped ; and the division, being 
no longer supported on rear or flank, resumed its 
backward movement. The fighting now grew more 
and more stubborn on the Union side. The enemy, 
wearied with marching and fighting, and tempted with 
camp plunder, more and more relaxed his pursuit ; and 
at last, in a position of their own selection, the Federal 
troops were brought to a dead halt. The enemy seemed 
to content liimself v/ith shelling them, and, for the time 
being, made no further demonstration. Gen. Comly, 
then commanding the Twenty-third Ohio, of Hayes's 
division, thus described the scene : — 

" Gen. Crook lay a couple of rods away from the 
line, in a place which seemed to be more particularly 
exposed than any other part of the line. Col. Hayes 
lay close by, badly bruised from his fall, and bitterly 
complaining because his troops did not charge the 
enemy's line, instead of waiting to be charged. Sud- 
denly there is a dust in the rear, on the Winchester 
pike ; and, almost before they are aware, a young man, 
in full major-general's uniform, and riding furiously a 
magnificent black horse literally flecked with foam, 
reins up, and springs off at Gen. Crook's side. There 
is a perfect roar as everybody recognizes Sheridan. He 



SHENANDOAH CAMPAIGN. 125 

talks with Crook a little while, cutting away at the 
tops of the weeds with his riding-whip. Gen. Crook 
speaks half a dozen sentences that sound a great deal 
like the crack of a Avliip, and by that time some of the 
staff are up. They are sent flying in different direc- 
tions. Sheridan and Crook lie down, and seem to be 
talking, and all is quiet again, except the vicious shells 
of the different batteries, and the roar of artillery along 
the line. After a while, Col. Forsyth comes down in 
front, and shouts to the general, ' The Nineteenth Corps 
is close up, sir.' Sheridan jumps up, gives one more cut 
with his whip, whirls himself around once, jumps on his 
horse, and starts up the line. Just as he starts, he says 
to his men, ' We are going to have a good thing on 
them now, boys ; ' and so he rode off, a long wave of 
yells rolling up to the right with him. The men took 
their posts ; the line moved forward ; and the balance 
of the day is a household word over the whole nation." 

The advance here described began at three o'clock, 
P.M., the men moving steadily and confidently forward 
over the wooded and broken ground, the scream of 
shells, and rattle of musketry, at the same time swelling 
into a furious chorus along the whole line. Quickly 
the enemy's front line was carried by a briUiant charge, 
and his left decidedly turned ; Gordon's division, which 
led the attack in the morning, having been outflanked 
and broken. 

Then came a pause in the advance, but not in the 
fight, as the enemy opened with his full artillery force, 
now largely strengthened by his captures. 



126 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

The different divisions were adjusted to the new 
attitude of the enemy, and then followed a second 
charge, more determined and more overwhelming than 
the first, breaking the rebel lines at all points, and 
forcing its flying fragments back upon the turnpike, a 
frantic, hopeless mob. Into this howling mass, — block- 
ing the narrow roadway with wagons, caissons, and 
disordered troops, — the artillery now poured a terrific 
fire, creating a wild panic that speedily spread through- 
out the entire rebel army. Guns, teams, every thing, 
was abandoned by the flying enemy ; and Sheridan's 
victorious battalions, gaining momentum each moment, 
picked up prisoners by the hundred, and cannon by the 
score. The rebel army was completely pulverized ; and 
only darkness saved it from total capture or annihila- 
tion. Practically, there was nothing left for Sheridan 
to fight ; and, excepting two or three cavalry skir- 
mishes,- the war in the valley was ended. 

Col. Haj^es was at once promoted to brigadier-general, 
" for gallant and meritorious service in the battles of 
Winchester, Fisher's Hill, and Cedar Creek," to take 
rank from Oct. 19, 1864 ; and was brevetted major- 
general, "for gallant and distinguished services during 
the campaigns of 186-1 in West Virginia, and particu- 
larly in the battles of Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek." 
Prior to these promotions, he had commanded a brigade, 
as colonel, for over two years ; and he was then com- 
manding a division. In the course of his arduous 
services, four horses had been shot under him, and he 



SHENANDOAH CAMPAIGN. 127 

had been wounded four times. His advancement was 
never sought, and did not come until loug after it 
had been fully earned. 

The battle of Cedar Creek was his last contest in the 
open field ; and, for several months thereafter, his 
brigade was either in camp, or engaged in some minor 
raid. In the spring of 1865, he was given command 
of an expedition against Lynchburg, by way of the 
mountains of West Virginia, and was engaged in prepa- 
rations for that campaign, when the war closed. 

Of his military character, one who served with him 
in nearly all his campaign has written as follows : — 

" Gen. Hayes was one of the most gallant soldiers 
that ever drew sword. More than four years' service 
in the same command gave the ^\•riter ample opportunity 
to observe that no braver or more dashing and enter- 
prising commander gave his services to the Republic 
than Gen. Hayes. He was the idol of his command. 
No soldier ever doubted where he led." 

Another, who was associated with him in the army, 
speaking of his military traits, says, — 

" He proved himself not only a gallant soldier, but 
model officer. We had opportunities of close observa- 
tion of hini in Virginia, and found him cool, self-pos- 
sessed, and as thorough in the discharge of his duties 
as he was gallant in action. There is probably no 
position that so thoroughly tries the gentleman as that 
of the ofiicer in time of war. The despotic power sud- 
denly placed in his hands calls for the higher attributes 



128 LIFE OF RUTHEEFORD B. HAYES. 

of manliood to preserve its possession from abuse. To 
liis inferiors in rank, Gen. Hayes was ever kind, patient, 
and considerate. He was, in the first sense of the 
term, the soldier's friend. As an officer, he was noted, 
not only for his strict loyalty to his superiors, but for 
gallantry in battle, and activity in the discharge of every 
duty, however perilous or arduous." 



CHAPTER XVII. 

BEGINNING OF POLITICAL LIFE. 

Hayes's Attachment to tlie Wliigs. — His Admiration for Daniel 
Webster. — The First Freesoil Club in Cincinnati. — Hayes in the 
Antislavery Convention. — Eefuses Nominations. — Estimation of 
him in Cincinnati. — His Kesolutions at the Grand Union Meeting. 
— His Support of Lincoln's Administration. 

The political life of Gen. Hayes began long before 
he accepted an o£6ce ; and, although he was never an 
ultra partisan, yet his opinions and preferences threw 
him into the Whig party at once upon his entry into 
active business-life. His associates at the bar in Cin- 
cinnati, including Groesbeck, Spofford, Hoadley, Force, 
Noyes, Smith, Pope, Mathews, and their companions, 
were active politicians, and naturally drew him more or 
less into the discussion of political questions, and into 
the various political movements preceding the elections. 
On all questions he had an opinion of his own, and 
acted upon it, independent of all combinations and 
parties, whenever his convictions led him to differ from 
them. He was a great admirer of Daniel Webster, and 
read that statesman's speeches so often, that he could 
repeat many of them verbatim. 

In 1853 the first Freesoil club of Cincinnati was 

129 



130 LIFE OF RUTHEEFORD B. HAYES. 

formed ; and many of the antislavcr}^ Whigs joined the 
organization, including Mr. Hayes, who became one of 
the strong and permanent members. It was character- 
istic of him to say but few words, and only on extraor- 
dinary occasions to venture a public remark ; yet a 
cause which had his support always found him punctual 
at its meetings, generous with his money, and a careful, 
cautious superintendent of all the minor details. To 
the new Freesoil party he gave his whole heart, and 
worked, when his companions slept, to get before the 
people the great questions which the encroachments of 
slavery made vital. Yet he was neither abusive nor 
bigoted. No one thought of calling Hayes a fanatic. 
In all his actions and all his words, there Avas a spirit of 
consecration to a righteous cause, and an unmistakable 
amount of broad common-sense. 

When Halstead, Eggleston, and other leaders of the 
American party, called upon the Freesoil clubs to act 
with them in joint county convention to elect delegates 
for the nomination of Salmon P. Chase for governor of 
Ohio, Hayes went into the convention with others, 
declaring that while he did not approve of the " Know- 
nothing " movement, yet the cause of human freedom 
demanded that all should combine for the overthrow 
of slaver}^. Every one knew that the things which 
Hayes said or did had under them no motive for self- 
aggrandizement. Eepeatedly urged to accept a nomina- 
tion for some of the various offices within his reach, he 
as firmly declined to be a candidate ; and the only office 



BEGINNING OF POLITICAL LIFE. 131 

he did accept was one directly in the line of his profes- 
sion. The temper and desires of the man are seen in 
his relnctant acceptance of the office of city solicitor 
after refusing a seat upon the judicial bench. 

In the campaign of 1860, he was especially active, 
regarding the success of the Republican party as abso- 
lutely necessary to the preservation of the Union ; and, 
when the exciting events which immediately followed 
the election were agitating the country, Hayes was 
identified with every movement which favored the 
overthrow of the slave power. He had elefended too 
many fugitive slaves, and heard too much of the bar- 
barous institution, to remain neutral when any act of 
his could contribute toward its overthrow. His influ- 
ence in the community, though so silent, was potent 
and agreeable. " The Cincinnati Gazette," speaking of 
him in its issue of j\Iarch 21, 1861, said, " He is a sound 
lawyer, a man of marked ability, undisputed integrity, 
and exemplary business-habits. He has made one of 
the best cit}" solicitors we have ever had, and has earned, 
as he has received, the approbation of good citizens of 
all parties." 

Something can be gathered concerning his opinions 
and sympathies, from the resolutions which he presented 
to a grand Union demonstration in Cincinnati, April 16, 
1861. They were as follows ; viz., — 

Resolved^ That the people of Cincinnati, assembled 
without distinction of party, are unanimously of the 



132 LIFE OF EUTHEEFORD B. HAYES. 

opinion that the authority of the United States, as 
against the rebellious citizens of the seceding and dis- 
loyal States, ought to be asserted and maintained ; and 
that whatever men or means maybe necessary to accom- 
plish that object, the patriotic people of the loyal States 
will promptly and cheerfully produce. 

Resolved^ That the citizens of Cincinnati will, to the 
utmost of their ability, sustain the General Government 
in maintaining its authority, in enforcing its laws, and 
in upholding the flag of the Union. 

These resolutions were adopted without a dissenting 
voice, and most gloriously did that city keep the pledge 
they then gave. President Lincoln read the resolutions 
with many expressions of joy, and preserved them among 
his private papers. 

From tliat time until the day of his gnlistment in 
the army, Haj-es was unceasingly at work in securing 
volunteers, and in providing for those who went out for 
three months. Toward all the expenses of meetings, 
processions, flag-raisings, and other demonstrations to 
secure and confirm the support of all classes for the 
national cause, Hayes was a most generous contributor, 
although holding himself as much as was consistent 
with duty in the background. Yet his devotion was 
known and appreciated sufficiently to give the people 
an interest in his welfare when he left them to go 
to the front; and they kej_3t a close watch upon all 
his movements. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

NOMINATION FOR CONGEESS. 

Gen. Hayes partially consents to be a Candidate. — The Forces to bo 
overcome. — The Campaign of 1864. — The Popular Esteem for 
Gen. Ilayes. — His Famous Letter. — His Characteristic Eeply to 
Judge Johnson. — Resolutions of the Ohio Soldiers. — First Men- 
tion of him for Governor. 

When the ReiDublicans of the Second Congressional 
District of Ohio were looking for a candidate for the 
election of 1864, they instinctively turned, as they had 
done before, to Gen. Hayes, and asked him to con- 
sent to become a candidate. The case is said to have 
been presented to him in the light of a duty, as it was 
believed that he was the only man who could carry the 
district; and' a solid Ohio delegation was deemed im- 
portant for the interests of the national cause. He did 
not seek the place, nor favor the project of his friends, 
but in conversation, when the matter was mentioned, 
indicated, that, should the war be closed before the 
Congress met to which he was to be chosen, he might 
take the seat. So his friends presumed, upon his 
conditional consent, to place his name on the ticket; 
• and the enthusiasm which followed among the people 

133 



134 LIFE OF EUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

confirmed tlie wisdom of their choice. With a Demo- 
cratic majority to overcome, witli a popuhxr opponent 
in the person of Joseph C. Butler, with tlie discontent 
created by tlie draft, and the appalling death-records 
of the army, to quell, it was no small undertaking on 
the part of the Republicans, and one which demanded, 
as it received, the most careful management, and the 
very best man for a candidate that could be found. 

Gen. Hayes himself took no part in the canvass, and 
could not be persuaded to do so. One of the active 
politicians of the district wrote to him, urging him in 
strong terms to come home, and personally canvass the 
district in his own behalf. To this he sent a charac- 
teristic reply, as follows : — 

" Yours of — is received. Thanks : I have other 
business just now. Any man who would leave the 
army at this time to electioneer for Congress ought to 
be scalped. Truly yours, R. B. Hayes." 

But his refusal to appear before the people in his own 
behalf did not seem to affect the determination of the 
Republicans, and With processions, mass-meetings, and 
fireworks, they aroused the people, and drew attention 
to their cause and their candidate. The transparencies 
of the torchlight processions and parades expressed the 
sentiments of the hour, as they usually do, with great 
significance and precision. Here are some of them as 
they appeared on banners and decorations during that 



NOMINATION FOR CONGRESS. 135 

exciting canvass : " Hayes is stumping the Shenandoah 
Valley ; " " Our Candidate is a Hero ; " " Hayes is no 
Coward ; " " The Defender of Ohio ; " " Antietam ; " 
" Hayes loves his Country, and Fights for it ; " " Tell 
Gov. Tod I'll be on Hand ; " " No Humbug nor Bun- 
combe about our Candidate;" "Hayes and the 
Union." 

As the day of election drew near, it was apparent 
that his personal popularity was destroying all opposi- 
tion. He was invulnerable, and it was useless for the 
Democrats to say aught against him or his life ; while 
any personal attack was sure to be followed by a loss 
of Democratic votes among that large class of people 
who knew Hayes, and respected his uprightness of 
character, and who would not listen to any insinua- 
tion against him without angry retaliation. Had there 
been any weak spot in his record or private life, had 
he not been a kind, upright, patriotic, able, moral, and 
temperate man, the world would have been apprised of 
it in that contest. But not a single word of accusa- 
tion or slander found lodgement in the breasts of that 
people. His ablest and his bitterest opponents had 
nothing but praises for the man, while they assailed 
the party which nominated him with untold fury. 

After his election, he was often importuned to resign 
his commission in the army ; but he declared that he 
could not, as a citizen of this nation, abandon the army 
while in the heat of such a struggle for life. 

Judge William Johnson, who was in Washington 



136 LIFE OF BUTHERFOED B. HAYES. 

during the winter of 1864-65, having hirgcr accommo- 
dations for Iiimself and family than he needed, wrote to 
Gen. Hayes, asking him when he intended to come to 
Washington, and offering him a suite of spare rooms. 
To which Gen. Hayes replied in substance as follows, — 

" I shall never come to Washington until I can come 
by the way of Richmond." 

His regard for the soldiers of his command, and his 
disinclination to leave them, were well reciprocated by 
them. It was by them that he was first mentioned for 
governor of Ohio, as early as the 20th of April, 1865. 
At that time the Ohio men in the Shenandoah Valley 
had been ordered to Winchester to prepare for the 
expected campaign ; and, while there, they held a mass- 
meeting without his knowledge, and unanimously 
passed the following resolution : — 

" Resolved^ That Gen. Hayes, in addition to possess- 
ing the ability and statesmanship necessary to qualify 
him in an eminent degree for chief magistrate of the 
great State of Ohio, is a soldier unsurpassed for patri- 
otism and bravery ; he having served four years in the 
army, earning his promotion from major in one of the 
Ohio regiments to his present position." 

Gen. Hayes expressed his decided disapproval of the 
movement at the time, and treated the matter as if 
such a thought was absurd, and his election impossible ; 
while he would not be tempted to accept the office, had 



NOMINATION FOR CONGRESS. 137 

it been tendered to him by those having the power to 
secure it for him. He had no ambition but to do his 
duty ; and it was no part of his duty at that time to be 
governor of Oliio. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



IN CONGRESS. 



The Honor connected with his Election. — Opinions of his Ability. 
— His Silence in the House of Eepresentatives. — Placed on Un- 
important Committees. — His Growing Influence. — Description of 
him as he then appeared. — His Reception on his Eeturn H( 



lome. 



The election of Gen. Hayes to Congress by a major- 
ity of three thousand and ninety-eight was no small 
honor in 1864, when the people felt the great impor- 
tance of electing their best men ; nor is it any mean 
compliment to represent sucli a State as Ohio at any 
time. To have one's name in the archives of such a 
commonwealth, associated with such distinguished men 
as McClellan, Grant, Sherman, Eosecrans, Mitchell, 
Sheridan, McPherson, Gilmore, Weitzel, Gordon! Gran- 
ger, McCook, Garfield, Schenck, Crook, Hazen, Stanley, 
Sill, Steadman, Kirby Smith, Lytic, Tod, Stanton, 
Chase, Cox, Thurman, Wade, Pendleton, Groesbeck, 
Garfield, Wai^, and hundreds more whom Ohio has 
raised to distinction, is worthy of the highest ambition, 
and a reward worth a life of devoted service. 

In one of the daily papers issued about the time of 
Gen. Hayes's election, appeared a paragraph which was 



IN CONGRESS. 139 

in accord with the entire public press ; and we give it 
in passing to show the estimation in which he was held 
at that day. 

" The electioneering that Col. Hayes has done during 
this political campaign has been at the head of his 
brigade in the Shenandoah Valley. He performed a 
gallant and conspicuous part in the splendid victories 
on the Opequan, and at Fisher's Hill. In the brilliant 
charges that have distinguished Crook's glorious divis- 
ion, Col. Hayes has been one of the leaders. He has 
been more than three years in the army, and at South 
Mountain was severely wounded. Months have to pass 
before he will be called to take his seat in Congress, 
and before that time we may hope to see the war end 
in an honorable peace. He is not only brave and judi- 
cious on the battle-field, but a capable and earnest 
civilian. He is one of the right sort of men to be 
sent to Congress." 

In Congress, during the session of 1865-66, Gen. 
Hayes displayed the same characteristics which had 
marked his whole previous course. He was ready for 
any kind of work, but very much disinclined to push 
himself into those positions which merely serve to 
attract public attention. The committees which he 
served upon were unimportant, because he was so little 
known to the speaker and to the leading spirits of 
the House of Representatives. Yet those things which 



140 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

were intrusted to liim were cared for witli a conscien- 
tious vigilance, and gradually his merits began to be 
recognized by tlie members ; and members of commit- 
tees with which he was in no wise connected began 
to consult his opinions, and act upon his advice. He 
earnestly supported the Re]3ublican measures for recon- 
struction ; he was very active in all those measures in 
which his State was interested ; he attended to every 
call made upon him from his constituents ; and he was 
one of the busiest, most business-like members to be 
found in Congress. Yet he made no speeches, and 
rarely ventured a remark. His vote was seldom, per- 
haps never, wanting, while he held a seat in the House 
of Representatives. 

Gen. Hayes was appointed chairman of the House 
Committee on the Library, having as his colleagues 
Judge Kelly of Pennsylvania, and Calvin T. Hulburd 
of New York. This is a joint committee ; and the 
members on the part of the senate were Messrs. Howe 
of Wisconsin, Fessenden of Maine, and Howard of 
Michigan. During Gen. Hayes's term of service, the 
large extensions to the library were' finished ; and he 
gave the work his personal supervision, securing desir- 
able improvements on the original plan. He also had 
carried through the House an appropriation of one hun- 
dred thousand dollars for the purchase of the curious 
collection of books on America made by Col. Peter 
Force, the value of which to future historians will be 
inestimable. ' Some attempts to palm off worthless 



IN CONGRESS. 



141 



works of art on tliis Library Committee, on tlie part of 
the House, was defeated by Gen. Hayes, who sought 
and received the advice of Charles Sumner before he 
acted on these art matters. 

Gen. Hayes was also a member of the Committee on 
Private Land Claims, with George S. Boutwell, Speaker 
Kerr, F. E. Woodbridge of Vermont, and others. 

Gen. Hayes took an active part in securing the pas- 
sage of George S. Boutwell's bill, prohibiting persons 
who had been guilty of treason, bribery, murder, or re- 
bellion, from practising in any United States Court. 

It is interesting to look back to that time, and notice 
how he was regarded by his acquaintances; and it 
serves, also, as a lesson for such as would deserve honor 
and renown. One writer who wielded considerable 
influence at that tune, and who drew his conclusions 
more from Gen. Hayes's official life than from a per- 
sonal acquaintance, used this remarkable language 
concerning him : — 

" Mr. Hayes is a good-sized, well-formed man. He 
is in every way well made ; has a handsome head on a 
rather handsome body, and a face which would intro- 
duce him favorably anywhere. His complexion is light, 
skin florid, temperament composed of the vital, motive, 
and mental in almost equal proportions. He is neither 
too fast nor too slow, excitable nor sluggish, but he is 
at once energetic, original, comprehensive, dignified, and 
resolute. He is more profound than showy, and has 



142 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

more application than versatility. He will finish what 
he begins, and make thorough work. He has a hopeful, 
hapi)y nature ; is eminently social, fond of home and all 
that belongs thereto, and as hospitable to all as he is 
thoughtful and considerate. But to be more specific : 
this gentleman is comparatively young in years, and 
younger in spirit. Though he has abeady accomplished 
much, he has by no means reached the climax of his 
fame. He is a rising young man, and, if spared, will in 
the course of a few years be found in the front ranks of 
the best minds in the nation. We base our predictions 
on the following points : first, he has a capital constitu- 
tion, both inherited and acquired, with temperate habits ; 
secondly, a large, well-formed brain, with a cultivated 
mind, with strong integrity, honor, generosity, hopeful- 
ness, sociability, and ambition, and all well guided by 
practical good sense. At present he may be thought 
to lack fire and enthusiasm; but age and experience 
will give him point and emphasis. Mark us, this 
gentleman will not disappoint the expectations of the 
most hopeful." 

It is a very unusual occurrence for a congressman to 
sit silent through the session, and go back to his consti- 
tuents to find hi]inself one of the most popular office- 
holders of his State. Yet such was the case with Gen. 
Hayes. His return to Cincinnati was the occasion for 
many demonstrations of approval and confidence, which 
testified no less to the good sense of a people who were 



IN CONGEESS. 143 

willing thus to be represented than it did to the sterling 
worth of the congressman. He had made no brilliant 
display, aroused no enemies, excited no partisan jeal- 
ousies; and yet he was appreciated and honored by 
those who elected him, strange as that fact will appear 
to many a disappointed aspirant for public honors. 

It was while sitting as a member of Congress, that he 
secured the friendship of many men of national repu- 
tation, and who have since been important and. faithful 
allies. In this, no less than in other characteristics, 





CAPITOL AT WASHINGTON. 

his life is at variance with the usual experience among 
public men. A man like Gen. B. F. Butler of JNIas- 
sachusctts secures many fast friends by being the 
vigorous opponent of men they dislike. The more 
numerous and combative his enemies seem to be, the 
larger is the number, and the more determined the 
spirit, of his followers. Another member of Congress 
who sat near him during two entire sessions, and who 
prided himself on making no enemies, had no influence 



144 LIFE OF KUTHEEFORD B. HAYES. 

in Congress, no real friends in Washington, and was 
ridiculed out of the next election at home. As a 
general rule, the man in iDolitics who makes no ene- 
mies fails to secure any friends ; while any man having 
enemies is sure of having some sympathizers and 
supporters. But it is safe to say that Gen. Hayes 
made no enemies in Congress ; and it appears equally 
true that some of the most valuable friends of his life 
were found there. To enjoy the friendship and confi- 
dence of Charles Sumner was no small honor ; nor 
was it any small matter to be numbered with that 
social circle of statesmen, which included Senator 
Fessendeu of Maine, Senator Wilson of Massachusetts, 
and Gov. Morton of Indiana. Hon. George S. Bout- 
well, afterwards secretary of the treasury, Avas a firm 
friend of Gen. Hayes ; while the secretary is often 
mentioned in Gen. Hayes's speeches in terms of friend- 
ship and commendation. It is a little surprising to us, 
that in our search, and in the search of others for us, 
there has not been found an instance in his life where 
he made an enemy, or where he ever lost a friend. 



CHAPTER XX. 

SPEECH ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL A3MENDMENTS. 

Gen. Hayes's First Political Canvass. — The Issues of 1866. —His 
DiflSdence in Public. — Speech on the Constitutional Amendments. 
— The Rebel Plan of Reconstruction. — The Union Plan. — John- 
son's Plan. — The Safe Method. 

In the political campaign of 1866, Gen. Hayes was 

renominated for Congress, and, for the first time in his 

life, entered into a canvass, and discussed publicly the 

questions to be affected by the results of the following 

election. Here, in his own declarations, as they came 

from his lips, is furnished an opportunity for the study 

of the man, uninfluenced by the bias or prejudice of 

the commentator. In his speeches, barring occasional 

errors in reporting them, is seen the man as he is ; 

and we shall insert two of them in full, and give 

extracts from others, in order that each reader may study 

them for himself, and from them form his own estimate 

of the man and his work. Ko changes will be found 

in. them to hide any error of judgment ; nor will the 

reader find any paragraphs extracted or inserted, either 

by Gen. Hayes or any confidential associate^ for the 

purpose of showing him to have been a prophet or an 

infallible statesman. 

lis 



146 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

The reader will, however, find, that, as the man 
became more and more accustomed to the rostrum, 
his language improved, and his methods of discussion 
became more distinct : in fact, his development in the 
use of words to convey his meaning, and to awaken 
the interest or enthusiasm of the people, is seen in a 
strong light when we compare his earliest speeches 
with those of latter years. The same rugged common- 
sense, and the same honesty of purpose, permeate 
them all ; but he was not an orator until years of 
practice gave him the assurance to face an audience, 
and forget that they were criticising him. He was a 
novice at public oratory in 1866, and a polished plat- 
form speaker in 1875. 

One of his first political speeches was upon the 
importance of the proposed constitutional amendments, 
and was delivered Sept. 7, 1866, at the town-hall, in 
the seventeenth ward of Cincinnati, and was reported 
as follows. It will be observed how studiously he 
keeps himself out of all his speeches. 

"Without preface, I proceed at once to the discussion 
of the great question to be determined in the momen- 
tous political struggle which now engages the attention 
of the American people. 

" How ought the nation to deal with the people of 
the States lately in rebellion? No scheme of recon- 
struction will be found in its practical working to be 
humane and just and wise, unless it is planned with 



SPEECH ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL ABIENDMENTS. 147 

particular reference to the different elements of whicli 
the population of those States is composed. That 
population consists of disloyal white people, loyal 
white people, and loyal colored people. In the South, 
there is a class, or caste, which by its wealth, intelli- 
gence, and social consideration, forms the opinions, 
and controls the political action, of the masses of the 
peoi^le, to an extent greater than is seen in any other 
part of the United States. We therefore naturally 
divide disloyal white people into the leaders and their 
followers, the masses of the people. The masses con- 
sist of ignorant and unthinking, but well-meaning 
people, and also of a class which is very large in all 
the slave States: I mean the ruffian class, the men 
who, in slaveholding communities, have been brutal- 
ized by the occupations which slavery made necessary, 
— the slave-traders, the keepers of slave-pens, the slave- 
drivers, and slave-catchers, the men who have been 
educated in violence and cruelty to human beings of 
both sexes and of all ages. From the hostiUty of this 
class, which has lost its occupation by the freedom of 
the slave, the loyal people of the South need special 
and powerful protection. 

" There are now only two plans of reconstruction 
before the country, — the plan of those who supported 
the war-measures of Mr. Lincoln's administration, 
which may be called the Union plan; and the plan 
which originated with those who opposed the war- 
measures of Mr. Lincoln, and which may be called the 



148 LIFE OF EUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

Rebel plan. There was another plan before the coun- 
try, which in some of its features was like the Union 
plan, in others it resembled the Rebel plan, and it had 
some provisions peculiar to itself. 

" This plan, which may propei'ly be called the Admin- 
istration plan, never had many supporters outside of 
the influence of executive patronage, and has now 
been, as I shall hereafter show, for all practical pur- 
poses, abandoned. 

" Before discussing the details of either of the pro- 
posed plans, I ask your attention to a brief inquiry as 
to the leading ideas which must be embodied in any 
just plan. Among Union men, prior to the cessation 
of actual hostilities there was no substantial difference 
of opinion as to the general principles on which the 
treatment of the people of the rebellious States ought 
to be based. They were announced at a very early 
period of the Rebellion. 

" Soon after the conspiracy to take the Southern 
States out of the Union had been fully developed; 
after our flag, floating over an unarmed vessel carry- 
ing provisions to the garrison at Fort Sumter had been 
fired on at Charleston ; and after the dock-yards, arse- 
nals, and forts of the United States, had been seized, but 
before a single blow had been struck in defence of the 
rights of the nation, — a Southern senator, Andrew 
Johnson of Tennessee, made a speech in the Senate of 
the United States, in which he said, ' Show me who has 
been engaged in these conspiracies, who has fired on our 



SPEECH ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 149 

flag, wlio has given instructions to take our forts, cus- 
tom-houses, arsenals, and dock-yards, and I will show 
you a traitor. Were I president, I would do as Thomas 
Jefferson did in 1806 with Aaron Burr: I would have 
them arrested, and, if convicted within the meaning and 
scope of the Constitution, by the eternal God I would 
execute them.' 

" I quote the former opinions of Pres. Johnson, not 
for any purpose so unimportant as to show an incon- 
sistency between his present course and his former 
declarations, but because what he said during the war 
derives significance from the fact that a vice-president, 
able, faithful, and every way worthy, was set aside 
to give place to Mr. Johnson, because he, in a way so 
conspicuous and pronounced, had given utterance to 
the settled convictions of the Union men of the 
country. 

" This was his definition of treason : ' Treason is a 
crime, not a mere political difference, not a mere 
contest between two^parties, in which one succeeded, 
and the other simply failed. Surely the Constitution 
sufficiently defines treason. It consists in levying war 
against the United States, and in giving their enemies 
aid and comfort. With this definition it requires no 
great acumen to ascertain who arc traitors. When the 
Government of the United States does ascertain who 
are the intelligent and conscientious traitors, the penalty 
should be paid.' In another speech he said, ' Is he — 
the traitor — to participate in the work of re-organi- 



150 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

zation? Shall he who brought this misery upon the 
State be permitted to control its destiny? ... I say 
that traitors should take a back-seat in the work of 
restoration. ... I say that the traitor has ceased to be 
a citizen, and, in joining the Rebellion, has become a 
public enemy. ... He forfeited liis right to vote with 
loyal men . . . when he sought to destroy our govern- 
ment. 

" ' These rebel leaders have a strong personal reason 
for holding out, — to save their necks from the halter ; 
and these leaders must feel the power of the govern- 
ment. Treason must be made odious, and traitors 
must be punished and impoverished.' 

" After the war ended, and within a week after the 
oath of office as president had been administered to 
him by Chief Justice Chase, Pres. Johnson was called 
on by a delegation of Indianians. The address to 
the President was made by a gentleman, who as the 
governor of his State during the whole war, under 
circumstances of difficulty and danger not equalled in 
any other loyal State, discharged his high trust with 
such a patriotic devotion to duty, with ability so great, 
and a success so signal, that, in a single term of office, 
he acquired a national reputation as one of our ablest 
living statesmen. 

"In his reply to Gov. Morton, Pres. Johnson said, 
* In reference to what my administration will be while 
I occupy my present position, I must refer you to the 
past. And, in reference to this diabolical and fiendish 



SPEECH ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 151 

Rebellion, all I have to do is to ask you to go back, 
and take my course in the past, and from that deter- 
mine what my future will be. -Mine has been but one 
straightforward and miswerving course ; and I see no 
reason now why I should depart from it. ... I have 
heretofore seen that traitors must be made odious, that 
treason must be made odious, that traitors must be 
punished and impoverished. . . . They must not only 
be punished, but their social power must be destroyed : 
if not, they will still maintain an ascendency, and may 
again become numerous and powerful ; for, when traitors 
become numerous enough, traitors become respectable. 

" ' While I say that the penalties of the law, in a 
stern and inflexible manner, should be executed upon 
conscious, intelligent, and influential traitors — the 
leaders who have deceived thousands, . . . while I 
say as to the leaders' ininishne^it^ I also say leniency, 
conciliation, and amnesty, as to the thousands whom 
they have misled and deceived.' 

" These extracts from speeches of Pres. Johnson, 
made before he was a candidate, while he was a candi- 
date, and after he was elected, may be taken as contain- 
ing the sentiments of the Union party. They show, 
that, at the end of the war, the Union men of the 
country believed that sound policy in dealing with the 
people of the rebellious States required, as to leading 
rebels, punishment^ exclusion from 2}oUtical office, and, in 
particular, a denial of all j^cirticijjatioji in the tvork of 
restoring civil government ; as to the well-meaning 



152 LIFE OF EUTHEEFOED B. HAYES. 

rebel people, conciliation^ forgiveness^ and pardon ; as 
to the loyal white people, Jionors, political j^ozver, and 
especially the exclusive right to participate in restoring 
civil government ; as to loyal colored people, freedom^ 
and jJfotection in the full enjoyment of the inalienable 
rights of man. There were, probably, some good 
Republican men who wanted more than this; I fear that 
there are a few who would have been satisfied with less 
than this ; but that I am not mistaken in my judgment 
as to the convictions of the great body of the Union 
people of all classes. North and South, in the army and 
at home, I ask no higher evidence than the action of 
our martyred President. 

" We know that his goodness of heart seemed, some- 
times, in the language of my friend Judge Johnston, 
' to swallow up almost every other virtue.' But kind 
and forgiving as he was, in the work of reconstruction 
which he undertook, we do not find him far behind the 
popular will. I shall not delay to give the details of 
his work. I shall give only results. Mr. Lincoln 
re-organized, as far as circumstances allowed, five 
States. West Virginia, formed out of part of the rebel 
State of Virginia, was organized upon such principles, 
and by such measures, that, by the votes of loyal men 
alone, a State government, loyal in all its branches, 
was established. Leading rebels were driven from the 
State, their property confiscated, and the proceeds 
placed in the treasury of the nation. Slavery was 
abolished ; and, from that day to this, West Virginia 



SPEECH ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 153 

lias had loyal governors, loyal legislators, loyal senators^ 
and an unbroken delegation of loyal representatives. 
She now remains as loyal as Vermont, and, true to her 
motto, 3Iontana Uberi, her mountains arc the homes 
of freemen. This was Mr. Lincoln's first State : the 
remaining part of Virginia, which was within our lines, 
was also organized by Mr. Lincoln. With too small a 
population taking part in civil government to be entitled 
to representation, a State government was, nevertheless, 
organized, loyal in all its branches ; and loyal senators 
and representatives to Congress were elected. This is 
Mr. Lincoln's second State. The most powerful State 
that went into rebellion was, probably, Tennessee. Mr. 
Lincoln, by the aid of the loyal people only, re-organized 
the State on such principles, that slavery was abolished, 
rebels disfranchised, a loyal governor and a loyal legis- 
lature elected, and an unbroken delegation of loyal 
senators and representatives sent to Congress. Better 
still, she has shown her determination to continue loyal, 
by adopting the Union amendment to the Constitution ; 
and is, therefore, the first of the States that went into 
the Rebellion to be restored to her proper practical 
relations with the Union, represented in both houses 
of Congress. This was Mr. Lincoln's third State. 
Arkansas was re-organized by loyal men. A loyal 
governor and a loyal legislature were elected ; and 
although by a constituency, perhaps, not sufficient in 
number, she elected, also, an unbroken loyal delegation 
to Congress. This is a fourth State organized by Mr. 



154 LIFE OF KUTHEEFORD B. HAYES. 

Lincoln. Louisiana was, in like manner, organized by 
Mr. Lincoln on a loyal basis. Slavery was abolished, 
a free State organized, loyal in all branches of its gov- 
ernment, and which remained loyal until after the close 
of Mr. Lincoln's administration. This is a fifth State 
organized by Mv. Lincoln. In the re-organization of 
rebel States during Mr. Lincoln's administration, these 
facts appear: the new governments were placed in 
the hands of loyal men ; rebels were excluded from 
participation in the work of restoration ; leading rebels 
were banished ; slavery was abolished voluntarily ; and 
the natural rights of the freedmen secured by appro- 
priate legislation. 

" After the assassination of Mr. Lincoln, the task of 
continuing the work of restoring civil government in 
the rebellious States devolved upon Pres. Johnson. 
He undertook the work of re-organizing in seven States. 
Without now stopping to inquire as to the principles 
on which he acted, or as to the particular measures 
which he adopted, let us examine the result of his 
labors. The first was North Carolina, an old Whig 
State. Its population and politicians — extremely con- 
servative, opposed strongly to nullification in the days 
of Calhoun — were carried away by what Gen. Grant 
calls ' the foolish notion of State rights.' A decided 
majority of the people hostile to rebellion at the begin- 
ning, and having a considerable number of intelligent 
and able men, remained steadfast in their fidelity 
to the Union throughout the whole war. With all 



SPEECH OX THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 155 

these advantages for the re-establishment of a State 
government on a loyal basis, the result is, that North 
Carolina has a rebel governor, a rebel legislature, a rebel 
judiciary, and has chosen- an unbroken delegation of 
rebel senators and rebel representatives to the Congress 
of the United States. I need not name the other six 
States. It is enough to say, that, with two or three 
unimportant exceptions, the history, in all its details, 
of North Carolina in this matter, may be read as the 
history of each of the other States which Pres. John- 
son undertook to re-organize. All of them have chosen 
for governors men who were leading rebels ; and rebels 
fill their legislative and judicial offices. Twelve of 
the fourteen United-States senators chosen by these 
States were leading rebels ; and the men chosen to 
represent them in the house of representatives stand, 
— rebels, twenty-two ; men of supposed loyalty, two ; 
and four yet to be chosen from Texas, all of whom are 
likely to be rebels. The restoration of two States 
begun by Mr. Lincoln was continued by Pres. John- 
son, — Louisiana and Virginia. Under Mr. Lincoln, 
they had loyal legislatures, and loj'al men elected to 
Congress. Under the plan of Pres. Johnson, both 
States now have rebel legislatures and rebel congres- 
sional delegations. At the late election in Arkansas, 
the loyal men elected under Mr. Lincoln have been 
defeated under Mr. Johnson's policy ; and the rebels 
now hold that State. From this, it appears that the 
result of what is usually called the President's policy 



156 LIFE OF EUTHEEFOED B. HAYES. 

ill dealing with the people of the rebellious States, is, 
that in all of those States, except West Virginia and 
Tennessee, Avhich repudiated his policy, loyal men have 
been compelled to take back-seats, while the places of 
honor and of political power have been filled by the 
rebels. • 

" Having seen the result, let us now look at the plan 
by which it was accomplished. In the first place, how 
were the rebels, leaders and followers, to be treated? 
By the amnesty proclamation, the rebel people generally 
were to be pardoned on taking an oath to support the 
Constitution, and the laws and proclamations of the 
government in regard to slavery; and the excepted 
classes, which may be taken to mean the leading rebels, 
were to take the same oath, and thereupon were to 
receive pardons also, if the President, on special appli- 
cat-ion, chose to grant them. In practice, the President 
has granted these pardons, so far as the public is in- 
formed, in all cases where the applicant was suspected 
of no other crime, except merely the crime of treason. 
This part of the plan, therefore, was practically consid- 
ered a full pardon to all rebels, leaders and followers, 
who would take an oath to support the present Consti- 
tution of the United States, and the proclamations 
abolishing slavery. The next feature of the plan was, 
that all pardoned rebels should participate in restoring 
civil government on the same terms with loyal citizens. 
This part of the administration plan differed from both 
the Union plan and the Rebel plan. By the Union 



SPEECH ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 157 

plan, leading rebels, whether pardoned or not, can hold 
no office, state, or national. This is a substantial differ- 
ence. By the Eebel plan, all rebels can participate in 
the government on the same terms with loyal men, 
without any pardon at all. This is merely a formal 
difference. The next and most important feature of 
the plan we are considering is the terms on which the 
rebellious States were to be fully restored to representa- 
tion and to all their other practical relations with the 
General Government. 

" The President required that four principal condi- 
tions should be complied w^ith : first, the amendment to 
the National Constitution, abolishing slavery, should 
be ratified; second, the ordinance of secession should 
be declared unlawful and void; third, the rebel debt 
should be repudiated; fourth, the laws of the nation 
should be obeyed, especially the Act approved July 2, 
18G2, which excludes from Congress any man who took 
part in the Rebellion. These provisions of the Adminis- 
tration plan differed widely and radically from the 
Rebel plan. The friends of the Rebel plan denounce all 
conditions as despotism and usurpation, and are partic- 
ularly hostile to amendments to the Constitution, and to 
the oath of loyalty. On the other hand, the Union 
plan agrees perfectly in principle with this part of the 
Administration plan. The supporters of the Union plan 
find here the precedent for requiring constitutional 
amendments as conditions, and for their fixed determi- 
nation sacredly to maintain the loyal oath. To tlio 



168 LIFE OF EUTHERFOED B. HAYES. 

first three of these conditions, the Rebel leaders in the 
South did not seriously object. Slavery had been, in 
fact, destroyed ; and most of them were easily induced 
to ratify the constitutional amendment recognizing the 
fact. South Carolina, as might have been expected, 
was, however, in the language of Mr. Seward, ' queru- 
lous and unreasonable,' and, with two or three other 
States, annexed to her ratification her own interpreta- 
tion of the meaning of the amendment. As to the 
second condition, the scheme of secession having failed, 
the ordinances passed to accomplish it were, without 
much opposition, in some form got rid of, although it is 
to be observed some of the States did not do it in the 
form dictated by the President. As to repudiating the 
rebel debt, that was in harmony with what many of 
these people have done with obligations of a more 
sacred character. But South Carolina, with her accus- 
tomed ' waywardness,' — although the President, in his 
letter to Gov. Perr}^ begged, as it were, upon his knees, 
that she should not throw away and defeat so much 
that had been well done, — has thus far failed to comply 
with this condition, giving, as her reason for not doing 
it, that her rebel debt is 'so very small.' Thus we 
see that the rebels generally complied with those con- 
ditions precedent of the administration plan which 
merely recognized existing facts. 

"We now come to the fourth condition, that which 
required the election, as members of Congress, of men 
who were qualified according to law. In order to 



SPEECH ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL AIMENDMENTS. 159 

understand the value and importance of this condition, 
let us see precisely what the law is. More than four 
years ago, a law was passed, with the approval of Pres. 
Lincoln, 'excluding from Congress, and from every 
Federal office, all persons who voluntarily gave aid to 
the Kebellion ; ' and, before a man can take his seat as 
a member of Congress, he must take the following 
oath : — 

" ' I, , do solemnly SAvear, or affirm, that I have 

never voluntarily borne arms against the United States 
since I have been a citizen thereof ; and I have volun- 
tarily given no aid, countenance, counsel, or encourage- 
ment, to persons engaged in armed hostility thereto ; 
that I have neither sought nor accepted, nor attempted 
to exercise, the functions of any office whatever, under 
any authority, or pretended authority, in hostility to 
the United States ; that I have not yielded a voluntary 
support to any pretended government, authority, power, 
or constitution, within the United States, hostile or 
inimical thereto. And I do further swear, that, to the 
best of my knowledge and ability, I will support and 
defend the Constitution of the United States against 
all enemies, foreign and domestic ; that I will bear true 
faith and allegiance to the same ; that I take this 
obligation freely, without any mental reservation or 
purpose of evasion ; and that I will well and faithfully 
discharge the duties of the office on which I am about 
to enter, so help me God ! ' 

" Obedience to this law was a condition of restoration, 



160 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

having a higher sanction than any other the rebels 
were required to comply with, except obedience to the 
Constitution itself. It was approved, as we have seen, 
by Pres. Lincoln. It was approved by Pres. Johnson 
in I know not how many speeches, addresses, letters, 
and messages, both before and after he became presi- 
dent. It was approved by two different Congresses 
during the Rebellion, and by every member of the 
Congress assembled since the Rebellion, who even pro- 
fessed to belong to the Union party. It was distinctly 
approved by the loyal people of the country at two 
successive congressional elections, and at one presiden- 
tial election. Moreover, the attention of the people of 
the rebellious States was specially and repeatedly called 
to the law ; and they were urged to give heed to it. 
Pres. Johnson sent a despatch (Aug. 22, 1865) to all of 
his provisional governors, in which he said, ' I feel it 
due to you to impress upon you the importance of 
encouraging and strengthening to the fullest extent the 
men of your State ivho have never faltered in their 
allegiance to the government.^ 

" As late as last February, Pres. Johnson, addressing 
a delegation of rebel Virginians, said, ' After having 
passed through the great struggle in which we have 
been engaged, we should be placed upon much more 
acceptable ground in resuming all our relations to the 
General Government, if we presented unmistakably 
and unquestionably loyal men to fill the places of 
power.' 



SPEECH ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDTtlENTS. IGl 

" We all remember that these rebel leaders at the end 
of the war were profuse of professions of returning 
loyalty ; that they were prepared ' to accept the situa- 
tion in perfect good faith,' and to yield sincere and 
hearty obedience to the Constitution and the laws. 
And now, how did they behave in regard to this plain 
requirement of the law ? All the advice, expostula- 
tions, and entreaties of the President and his secretary 
of state, were in vain. In reply to it all, these people 
proclaimed by their election of representatives, and by 
their choice of senators, that rather than obey the law, 
rather than elect Union men who could take the lawful 
oath, rather than, be represented by men unmistakably 
and unquestionably loyal, they would go unrepresented 
. altogether. In one or two of the ten States which are 
now unrepresented, it is probable that they did not cast 
votes enough at the election to entitle anybody to take 
a seat in Congress. In the other States, as we have 
already seen, with a few exceptions, they elected for 
their representatives and senators leading rebels, the 
leader and chief-spokesman of vv^hom is a pardoned 
prisoner, and an unpardoned traitor, who held a higher 
civil office in the late Confederate States Government 
than any other man except Jefferson Davis. 

" We often hear from unthinking or uncandid people, 
that Congress,, prevents ten States from having their 
due representation in Congress. Even Gen. Dix said 
something of this sort at Philadelphia. Senator Hen- 
dricks of Indiana, strongly partisan as he is, is com- 



162 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

pelled to admit, in the elaborate speech he lately de- 
livered at the capital of his State (and I quote his 
words), that 'rebels are not excluded by the action of 
the present Congress : they stand excluded by the 
law.' If every man duly elected from the rebel States 
claiming to have been loyal was admitted to a seat in 
Congress, more than nine-tenths of those States and 
of their people would still be wholly unrepresented. 
There is much talk of taxation without representation. 
The truth is, that those people deprived themselves of 
representation by going into the Rebellion ; and now, 
actuated by the same spirit as they were then, they 
continue to deprive themselves of that right by refus- 
ing to obey the law. 

" Certain conditions were required of these people. 
They comply with some of them. As to this essential 
condition, obedience to the law of the country, they 
refuse compliance ; they become exacting ; they become 
arrogant ; they say by their conduct, to the govern- 
ment and to the loyal people of the country, ' We are 
the conquerors ; we make conditions ; it is for us to 
dictate terms. If j'ou wish the proper relations between 
us and the United States to be fully restored, you must 
change your law. We will not consent to be repre- 
sented in your Congress, except by men whom you call 
traitors. If you want your Union restored, we demand 
that you repeal the la^v which prescribes the loyal oath. 
You must allow rebels to take part in the work of 
restoration.' 



SPEECH ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 163 

" Soutli Carolina, making this arrogant demand, goes 
to Philadelphia, and, strangel}^ enough, finds Massachu- 
setts men ready to do her bidding. To celebrate their 
victory, the delegates of South Carolina lock arms with 
their captives from Massachusetts, and parade them in 
triumph, amid storms of applause, in the hall filled 
with rebels and rebel sympathizers. It is possible that 
South Carolina was truly represented on that occasion ; 
but the world well knows that ' Old Massachusetts,' 
the Massachusetts of Lexington, of Concord, and of 
Bunker Hill, was not there. It may be that hereafter, 
when repentance and forgiveness have restored peace 
and harmony to our country, in some distant day, 
some man who represented South Carohna in that 
scene may represent her again in some place of honor 
and trust in the government of the Union ; but it is 
pleasant to know that the men who there disgraced 
Massachusetts will never be called by her people to 
fill any ofi&ce or power while the sun shines, or water 
runs. 

" The rebellious people of the South having with such 
great unanimity refused to elect senators and repre- 
sentatives to Congress who were qualified according to 
law, as the Administration plan required, the question 
at once arose. Who shall yield, — the nation, or the 
rebels; the victor, or the vanquished? The peace party 
of the North, under the same influences which con- 
trolled it during the war, promptly took side with the 
rebels. By their votes and speeches in Congress, they 



164 LIFE OF EUTHERFOED B. HAYES. 

denounced the loj^al oath, declared it to be tja-annical 
and unconstitutional, and began, in the usual way, an 
agitation looking to its repeal. The Union party was 
equally prompt and explicit in taking sides against the 
rebels, and in favor of the law. Upon the first oppor- 
tunity, after the meeting of Congress in December 
last, ]\Ir. Hill, a Union member of the House from 
Indiana submitted this resolution : — 

'''Resolved, That the Act of July 2, 18G2, prescribing 
an oath to be taken and subscribed by persons elected 
or appointed to office under the government of the 
United States, before entering upon the duties of suc4i 
office, is of binding force and effect on all departments 
of the public service, and should in no instance be 
dispensed with.' 

" A Democrat from Ohio, Mr. Finck, moved that it 
be tabled, which was disagreed to (yeas, 32; nays, 12G), 
and the resolution was passed ; every Union man, save 
one, voting for it, and every Democrat voting against 
it. Among those voting for the resolution were Mr. 
Raymond, Gen. Rousseau, and all the other members 
who subsequently became known as the special friends 
of the President. What course the President himself 
would pursue was not for a long time clearly apparent. 
There were passages in his speeches, and veto messages, 
during the winter and spring, which, taken by them- 
selves, indicated a purpose on his part to stand by the 
loyal oath. The same speeches and messages, however, 
contained repeated and violent attacks upon Congress 



SPEECH ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 165 

for refusing representation to eleven Southern States, 
when it was perfectly well known by him and the 
country, that, with a few exceptions, those States had 
elected no members of either house, qualified to take 
their seats, unless the loyal oath was repealed or dis- 
regarded. Besides, we heard neither from him or his 
supporters any complaint of the refractory spirit of the 
rebels, which has prevented them from yielding a 
cheerful obedience to the law. All complaints and 
accusations were aimed at Congress. In his Annual 
Message, the President, speakmg of his policy of resto- 
ration, had said, ' I know very well that this policy is 
attended with some risk ; that, for its success, it re- 
quires at least the acquiescence of the States which it 
concerns ; that it implies an invitation to those States, 
by renewing their allegiance to the United States, to 
resume their functions as States of the Union. But it 
is a risk that must be taken ; and, in the choice of diffi- 
culties, it is the smallest risk ; and to diminish, and, if 
possible, to remove, all danger, I have felt it incumbent 
upon me to assert one other power of the General 
Government, — the power of pardon. As no State can 
throw a defence over the crime of treason, the power 
of pardon is exclusively vested in the Executive Gov- 
ernment of the United States. In exercising that 
power, I have taken every precaution to connect it 
with the clearest recognition of the binding force of 
the laws of the United States.' 

" The President here avows his intention to exercise 



166 LIFE OF KUTHEEFOED B. HAYES. 

the pardoning power in such a way as to obtain from 
the rebel States their acquiescence in his policy, and 
their clear recognition of the binding force of the laws 
of the United States. And yet the prominent actors, 
disregarding the law which prescribes the royal oath, 
including the disloyal men who sought and procured 
their own election as senators and representatives, 
have, so far as the public knows, found no difSculty 
on that account in obtaining pardons from the Presi- 
dent. Other indications were not wanting that the 
tendency of the President was to yield to the demand 
of the rebels and their Northern allies. 

" During Mr. Lincoln's administration, there had 
grown up, partly under the Freedmen's Bureau Act, 
and partly under military orders sanctioned by the 
usages of war, a system of dealing with loyal white 
refugees and freedmen, which seemed necessary for their 
protection and safety in the existing unsettled condi- 
tion of the Southern country. This system Pres. John- 
son had continued until long after actual hostilities had 
ceased. It was deemed advisable, by those charged 
with the administration of this system, that it should 
have the express authority of law. In this opinion, it 
was understood the President concurred. A bill was 
accordingly prepared, having for its model the system, 
which, up to that time, had been carried into effect 
chiefly by means of military orders. Its main pro- 
visions were not compulsory. It conferred extensive 
powers upon the President, which he might use or not, 



SPEECH ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 1G7 

according to his discretion. It was not expressly 
limited as to the time of its continuance ; but it was 
understood on all sides to be a temporary measure to 
bridge over the period of confusion and disorder which 
always follows a civil war, and until the relation be- 
tween capital and free labor has been estabhshed in 
place of the relation of master and slave. This bill 
was met by the President's veto. 

" In many of the Southern States, laws were enacted 
in regard to the punishment of freedmen, and as to their 
rights to make contracts to hold real estate, to sue and 
testify in the courts, which were of such a character, 
that, if they were enforced, the colored people would 
be free only in name. In several instances, military 
commanders, with the approval of the President, have 
prevented the execution of these laws. In order to 
put an end to this sort of treatment of the freedmen, 
the Civil Rights Bill was proposed. It secured to 
colored people in the South the same rights which 
they enjoyed in Ohio under a pohcy adopted almost 
thirty years ago by a Democratic legislature, and which 
Mr. Pendleton, in his letter on the subject, says, ' Has 
been found so consistent with justice to the negroes 
and the interests of the white, that no one, certainly 
no party in Ohio, would be willing to abandon it.' 
This bill was also vetoed. 

" The speeches and messages of the President on these 
bills indicated his conversion to the Rebel plan of pro- 
tecting Southern Unionists and freedmen; that is to 



168 LIFE OF EUTHEKFORD B. HATES. 

say, they were to have such protection only as might 
be granted by the laws of the rebel States, adminis- 
tered by rebel ofiScials. This left but one important 
step to take to completely commit his administration 
to the Rebel plan of restoration ; viz., to abandon the 
condition that representatives and senators from the 
Southern States must be, in the President's word, 
' Unmistakably and unquestionably loyal.' This step 
he has never ventured clearly and publicly to take ; 
but the Philadelphia Convention settled that question. 
The fatal step has, in fact, been taken. The rebels 
know that they are to have their own way. The nation 
• is to yield. Nothing will keep rebels out of Congress 
but the election of men determined to enforce and 
maintain Mr. Lincoln's loyal oath. The Philadelphia 
Convention on this subject passed the following reso- 
lution : ' Fourth, We call upon the people of the 
United States to elect to Congress none but men who 
admit the fundamental right of representation, and 
who will receive to seats loyal representatives from 
every State in allegiance to the United States, and sub- 
mit to the consideration of each house to judge of the 
election returns and quahfications of its own members.' 
This resolution is intentionally ambiguous ; but it will 
deceive nobody who does not wish to be deceived. 
The peace men and rebels, who were a large majority of 
that convention, openly declare that a ' loyal repre- 
sentative ' is one who is ready now to support the 
Constitution of the United States, and that no inquiry 



SPEECH ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 169 

should be made as to his loyalty during the Rebellion. 
They say that the word 'loyal' refers to the present 
or the future, not to the past. In this sense, it was 
adopted by the convention, and accepted by the Presi- 
dent and his friends. If votes can be gained by claim- 
ing that it refers to past loyalty, to loyalty during the 
Rebellion, no doubt the claim will be made; but the 
simple truth is, under that resolution, Mr. Stephens, 
late vice-president of the rebel confederacy, and about 
seventy other rebels, intend to obtain seats in the Con- 
gress of the United States. 

" The last remaining feature of the Administration 
plan of dealing with the people of the rebellious States 
having thus been abandoned, let us examine briefly 
the Rebel plan. It has the support, in all its parts, of 
the men, who, during the war, were peace men at the 
North, and rebels at the South. It has the advantage 
of being consistent with itself, and with the previous 
history of its authors and friends. Those who, in the 
North, opposed the North, were, during the whole strug- 
gle, in very close sympathy with the people engaged in 
the Rebelhon: their sympathy for the loyal white 
people was not strong, and they were bitterly hostile to 
the loyal colored people, both North and South. Their 
plan is in harmony wittr all this. According to it, the 
rebels are hereafter to be treated in the same manner 
as if they had remained loyal. All laws, state and 
national, all orders and regulations of the military, 
naval, and other departments of the government, ere- 



170 LIFE OF EUTHERFOED B. HAYES. 

ating disabilities on account of participation in the 
Rebellion, are to be repealed, revoked, or abolished. 
The rebellious States are to be represented in Congress 
by the rebels they have chosen, without hinderance from 
any test oath. All appointments in the army, in the 
navy, and in the civil service, are to be made from men 
who were rebels, on the same terms as from men who 
were loyal. The people and governments in the rebel- 
lious States are to be subjected to no other interference 
or control, from the military or other departments of 
the General Government, than exists in the States which 
remained loyal. Loyal white men and loyal colored 
men are to be protected alone in those States by State 
laws, executed by State authorities, as if they were in 
the loyal States. The Union party objects to this plan, 
because it is wrong in principle, wrong in its details, 
and fatally wrong as a precedent and example for the 
future. It treats treason as no crime, and loyalty as 
no virtue. It restores to political honor and power in 
the government of the nation, men who have spent the 
best part of their lives in plotting the overthrow of 
that government, and who, for more than four years, 
levied public war against the United States. It allows 
Union men in the South, who have risked all, and many 
of whom have lost all but life, in upholding the Union 
cause, to be excluded from every office, state and 
national, and, in many instances, to be banished from 
the States they so faitlifully labored to save. It aban- 
dons the four millions of loyal colored people who lost 



SPEECH ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 171 

the protection wliicli owners give their property when 
they were made free to save a nation's life, to such 
treatment as the ruffian class of the South, educated in 
the barbarism of slavery, and the atrocities of the Re- 
bellion, may choose to give them. It leaves the obliga- 
tions of the nation to her creditors, and to the maimed 
soldiers, and to the widows and orphans of the war, to 
be fulfilled by men who hate the cause in which those 
obligations were incurred. It claims to be a plan 
which restores the Union without requiring conditions ; 
but, in conceding to the conquered rebels the repeal 
of laws important to the nation's welfare, it grants a 
condition which they demand, while it denies to the 
loyal victors a condition, which they deem of priceless 
value. 

" Instead of this plan of dealing with the people of 
the rebellious States, the Union party presents a plan 
which also has the merit of being in perfect harmony 
with the opinions and history of that party during the 
whole war. We have already seen that the leading 
objects or desire with the Union party have been, 
First, — 

"1. The removal of every relic of slavery from the 
Federal Constitution and from the constitutions and 
laws of all the States. 

" 2. That loyalty should be respected, and treason 
made odious. 

" 3. That the national obligations to the patriotic 
people who furnished men and means to crush the 
Rebellion should be faithfully fulfilled. 



172 LIFE OF KUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

" The Union party undertakes to accomplish these 
objects by an amendment of the National Constitution. 
No other form of guaranty has any title to be called 
irreversible. The constitution and laws of the States, 
and the resolutions of conventions, afford no security to 
the nation. They are changeable as the wishes and 
purposes of the men who make them. The creditor 
who takes security does not leave it in the possession 
and control of his doubtful debtor, but places it in his 
own safe, and keeps the key himself. The nation 
accepting pledges from the States lately in rebellion 
will place them in the National Constitution, where 
they will remain until removed by the nation's consent. 
I do not stop to prove the right of the nation to re- 
quire conditions clinched by constitutional amendment : 
among Union men, this is not an open question. Gov. 
Cox, in his admirable speech at Columbus, said truly, 
that every person, from the President to the humblest 
citizen who has claimed to belong to the Union party, 
has agreed that 'terms involving some change in the 
organic law of the land must be accepted by the lately 
rebellious States as the condition of complete restora- 
tion.' The terms embodied in the constitutional 
amendment proposed by the Union party are few in 
number, easily understood, and manifestly just. 

" The first two sections of the amendment to get rid 
of the last vestige of slavery, which, under the color 
of law, still lingers in any part of the United States 
are as follows : — 



SPEECH ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 173 

«< < Section 1. — All persons born or naturalized in the United 
States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the 
United States, and of the State in which they reside. No State 
shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges 
and immunities of citizens of the United States. Nor shall any 
State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due 
process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the 
equal protection of the laws.' 

" This secures to any person bom or naturalized in the 
United States th-e equal protection of the laws in the 
enjoyment of life, liberty, and property. In Ohio, for 
twenty years this protection has been extended to every 
citizen, under State laws; and notwithstanding the 
efforts often made, by thoughtless or wicked persons, 
to create prejudice against colored people, no political 
party in the State ventures to commit itself in favor of 
a change. No argument is, therefore, needed here to 
prove, that, in return for the allegiance required of 
every citizen of the nation wherever oppression and 
unjust State legislation deprives such citizen of protec- 
tion in the enjoyment of his natural rights, it is the 
duty of the United States to hold up before him the 
broad shield of the Constitution. No Union man can 
object to that section of the amendment. 

*" Sect. 2. — Representatives shall be apportioned among the 
several States, according to their respective numbers, counting the 
whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. 
But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors 
for president and vice-president of the United States, representa- 
tives in Congress, the executive and judicial ofl3.cers of the State, 



174 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the 
male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and 
citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for 
participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of representation 
therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of 
such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens 
twenty-one years of age in such State. ' 

" This removes the unjust and unequal distribution of 
the political power between the North and the South 
originally caused by the constitutional provision in 
regard to slave representation. By that provision, three- 
fifths of the slaves were added to tlie number of the 
other people in the slave States, in ascertaining their 
representative population. This gave those States, by 
the census of 18G0, eighteen more representatives in 
Congress, and eighteen more votes in electing a presi- 
dent and vice-president, than a free population would 
entitle them to. As those slaves are now free, they will 
be counted the same as other people : thus the effect of 
the Rebellion will be to reward the rebellious commu- 
nities by an addition of twelve representatives to the 
Southern States. Those States will then have thirty 
representatives — as many as Ohio and Indiana com- 
bined — for their colored people, whom they pronounce 
totally and permanently unfit to be intrusted with the 
most paltry part of political power in their own States, 
counties, or towns. By this system, a white man in 
many of the Southern States will have as much political 
power as two or three white men in a Northern State. 



SPEECH ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 175 

It was said at the beginning of the war by the rebel 
press, that one white man could whip five Yankees ; but 
the result proved that one Southern man is equal only 
to one Yankee ; and representation ought hereafter to be 
established on that basis. Simple justice requires that 
the vast colored population of the South, who exercise 
no political power whatever, shall not be counted against 
the white population of the North for the purpose of 
increasing the political power of the late rebels. Let 
this section be adopted, and every voter in the land will 
have the same political power with any other voter ; 
and this is equal and exact justice to all. 
" The third section read as follows : — 

" ' Sect. 3. — No person shall be a senator or a representative in 
Congress, or elector of president and vice-president, or hold any 
oflBce, civil or military, under the United States, or under any 
State, who, having previously taken an oath as a member of Con- 
gress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any 
State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any 
State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have 
engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid 
or comfort to the enemies thereof. The Congress may, by a vote 
of two-thirds of each house, remove such disability.' 

" This makes loyalty respected, and treason odious, 
by disqualifying leading rebels from holding any office, 
civil or military, under the United States, or under any 
State ; thus leaving the places of honor and power 
within the reach of the loyal men of the South. The 
form of this provision is such, that it applies only to 



176 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

men who have taken the oath to support the Constitu- 
tion, and afterward broken it. These are, for the most 
part, the old poHtical leaders, the men chiefly respon- 
sible for the Rebellion. The younger men, the m.en 
under thirty or thirty-five years of age, have very few 
of them been guilty of this perjury. Since the winter 
of 1860 and 1861 (a period of six years), no man in 
the Rebel States has been sworn to support the Consti- 
tution of the United States on taking office. Lapse of 
time, therefore, will soon relieve from the operation of 
this section the active part of the Southern people. 
Men who, to the guilt of treason, have added also the 
guilt of perjury, are to be punished by being forever 
excluded from office. This is the only punishment 
which the legislature of the last Congress seeks to 
inflict upon the perjured traitors who plotted the de- 
struction of the republic. Yet the President — who 
for the last five years has been breathing threatenings 
and slaughter against the rebels, declaring to audi- 
ences in every State from Nashville to Washington, 
that leading rebels must be executed, and their estates 
confiscated — now says, in his reply to the Phila- 
delphia committee, that the legislation of Congress has 
partaken of the character of penalties, retaliation, and 
revenge. Strange language from the lips of the Presi- 
dent toward a co-ordinate branch of the government, 
even if it were warranted by the facts. But when we 
remember the punishments which have always followed 
the overthrow of rebellions in other countries: when 



SPEECH ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 177 

we remember the punishments and confiscations in- 
flicted on the Tories of the Revolution in Georgia, 
Virginia, and South Carolina ; and especially when we 
remember the atrocious cruelties visited upon the loyal 
men at the South, and the punishment which was 
threatened them if the Rebellion was successful, — we 
cannot but be amazed at such an assertion in the face 
of the nation's unparalleled, and, I had almost said, 
inexcusable clemency. 

" The fourth section is as follows : — 

"* Sect. 4. — The validity of the public debt of the United 
States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment 
of pensions, and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection 
or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United 
States, nor any State, shall assume to pay any debt or obligation 
incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United 
States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave. 
That all such debts, obUgations, and claims shall be held illegal 
and void.' 

" This section, while it makes sacred the loyal obli- 
gations, puts into the most solemn and enduring form 
the nation's condemnation of the Rebellion, by making 
void every obligation incurred in its behalf. The 
chief objection made against tliis section is that it is 
not necessary. But the intentions of the rebellious 
peo^Dle are only too manifest. They mean to demand 
compensation for their emancipated slaves ; and, if that 
is refused, they will make that refusal their apology 
for the repudiation of every national obligation to 



178 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

creditors and the nation's defenders, and their families. 
It is said that the Philadelphia convention framed a 
just and proper resolution on this subject, and that 
the rebel delegates made no objections. I appeal from 
the base-locked lips of the rebel delegates to the out- 
spoken and authoritative declarations of the rebel 
press. I appeal to the official action in their own 
States of those delegates themselves. Gov. Orr of 
South Carolina, a moderate rebel, — so moderate, that 
Wade Hampton, who was not a candidate, came within 
a few votes of defeating him for governor, — was in 
that convention. In his message to the legislature of 
the State, he said, ' I therefore cherish the hope, that 
Congress will, as soon as the public debt is provided 
for, make some just and equitable arrangement to 
make the citizens of the South some compensation for 
the slaves manumitted by the United States authori- 
ties.' He cites the fact, that ' an appropriation was 
made by Congress to indemnify slave-owners in the 
District of Columbia, when slavery was abolished 
there in 1862,' as the precedent for the claim which 
he encourages the people of the South to make. The 
State of Georgia, through her act abolishing slavery, 
annexed this significant proviso : ' Provided^ that 
acquiescence in the action of the government of the 
United States is not intended to operate as a relin- 
quishment, or waver, or estoppel of such claim for 
compensation of his slaves as any citizen of Georgia 
may hereafter make upon the justice and magnanimity 



SPEECH ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. 179 

of that government.' These quotations are enough 
to put the people of the nation upon their guard. 
This claim for emancipated slaves, amounting to from 
fifteen hundred to three thousand millions of dollars, — 
equal, perhaps, to the whole of the present national 
debt, — will surely be made, unless security shall be 
taken against it, and that security placed in a constitu- 
tional provision, of which the nation will hold the key. 
" This is a short and imperfect presentation of the 
Union plan of restoration. The chief objection to it 
remains to be considered. It is said that the South 
will never accept of these terms, but, on the contrary, 
will require the nation to retam its laws, so that her 
seventy rebel senators and representatives, soon to be 
increased by her full negro representation, to eighty or 
ninety, will be admitted without question, to the United 
States. This presents the sole issue. The rebels say, 
* Peace, harmony, and restored union you can have, by 
giving up your just demands, and yielding to the unjust 
requirements of the South.' This is the whole familiar 
story. For many 3^ears the people of the North believed 
it. For the sake of harmony and union, they yielded 
to every arrogant demand, until, at last, they learned 
that every concession was the parent of increased arro- 
gance, and new threats of discord and disunion. Their 
manliood and sense of justice were at length aroused ; 
and, in opposition to slavery extension and slavery 
dictation, they elected Abraham Lincoln president. 
The slaveholders rebelled, and, during four years, waged 



180 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

against their own government a war of unparalleled 
atrocities. Overthrown and beaten in that war, pros- 
trate and utterly helpless at its close, they now assume 
the air and bearing of conquerors, and propose to dic- 
tate terms. The Seward-Johnson party advises the 
people, for the sake of peace and union, to submit to 
this demand. The Union party is prepared to make 
great sacrifices in the future, as in the past, for the 
sake of peace and for the sake of union ; but submission 
to what is wrong can never be the foundation of a real 
peace, or a lasting union. They can have no other sure 
foundation but the principles of eternal justice. The 
Union men, therefore, say to the South, ' We ask nothing 
but what is right. We Avill submit to nothing that 
is wrong.' With undoubting confidence we submit the 
issue to the candid judgment of the patriotic people 
of the country, under the guidance of that Providence 
which has hitherto blessed and preserved the nation." 



CHAPTER XXI. 

GOVERNOR OP OHIO. 

Nomination for Governor. — His Leadership of a Forlorn Hope. — 
The Word "White." — Makes Eighty-one Speeches. — His Election. 
The Liberal Movement of 1872. — Hayes defeated. — His Retire- 
ment from Public Life. 

Gen. Hayes's majority in the congressional election 
of 1866 was twenty-five hundred and fifty-six ; and he 
had made his preparations for a stay of two years more 
in Washington, when, to-his surprise, the State Repub- 
lican Convention, held at Columbus, June 10, 1867, 
selected him with great unanimity as its candidate for 
governor. Again he came to the front as the leader of 
a forlorn hope. His party were compelled to meet in 
the succeeding canvass the quesfion of negro equality 
as expressed in the proposed constitutional amend- 
ment striking out the word " white." There was a 
deep prejudice throughout the State against the negro, 
and it appeared as if it would be defeated. Nothing 
but a most vigorous canvass, with a candidate wholly 
untrammelled by previous mistakes or objectionable 
afiiliations, could carry the election for the Republicans. 
Such a candidate they would liave in the person of 

181 



182 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B, HAYES. 

Gen. Ha5^es ; and they determined that ^e should be 
their leader. 

To their call he reluctantly responded ; and having 
consulted with his advisers, among whom was Gen. 
Garfield, he entered into the canvass with great zeal, 
and resigned his seat in Congress. It was a most 
remarkable and exciting contest, and called out all the 
available forces of both parties. Hon. Allen G. Thur- 
man was the candidate of the Democracy, a strong 
and able statesman of unquestioned integrity, and 
possessed of great personal influence among the people ; 
while Messrs. Vallandigham, S. S. Cox, Pendleton, 
Groesbeck, Voorhees, Morgan, Ranny, and all the 
local celebrities of that party, added their force to the 
battle. 

It is said that Judge Thurman made seventy-one 
speeches during the campaign, and that Gen. Hayes 
delivered eighty-one ; each discussing the other's 
speeches in a way that was very inciting to the masses, 
and often exceedingly entertaining. Yet, in his ad- 
dresses. Gen. Hayes always treated Judge Thurman 
with courtesy and respect, never descending to the 
least slur or innuendo concerning the personal charac- 
ter of his opponent, conducting himself, in that respect, 
in accordance with his invariable practice elsewhere. 
The dangerously plausible theory of paying off the 
national debt by issuing national currency was also 
introduced into the campaign by Mr. Pendleton, and 
attracted many voters by its novelty and plausibility. 



GOVERNOR OF OHIO. 183 

So close was the vote, that, while Gen. Hayes was 
elected by about three thousand votes, the Democratic 
party secured a majority of both houses in the State 
legislature, thus defeating, for the time, the constitu- 
tional amendment. Gen. Hayes's personal popularity, 
and his wonderful resources when called out by such 
an emergency, carried him far ahead of the vote of his 
party. 

In 18G9 he was again nominated ; and, having now 
obtained a strong weapon in the shape of the extraor- 
dinary long sessions of the Democratic legislature and 
their inconsiderate appropriations of public funds, he 
entered the canvass, confident that his party would be 
victorious. His speeches at that time upon the internal 
affairs of Ohio were regarded as masterpieces among 
political speeches, and were crowded with valuable 
information for the citizens of that State. His oppo- 
nent at that election was Hon. George H. Pendleton, 
whose glittering fallacies about creating a paper cur- 
rency as valuable as gold drew a large number of the 
middle and lower classes to his support. Gen. Hayes 
was, however, elected, having a majority of 7,518 votes, 
and saving his party from a renewed defeat. It would 
seem to be an impossibility for any man to pass tln-ough 
such a heated and closely contested political battle, and 
have no enemies at the close of it. Yet such is the 
testimony of both parties ; and his opponents, the 
Democrats chosen at that election, even went so far as 
to propose a combination with some of the Republicans 



184 LIFE OF BUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

for tlie purpose of electing him United States senator ; 
and, had he not persistently and absolutely refused to 
accept the office, he would certainly have been elected, 
instead of Senator Sherman, whom he faithfully sup- 
ported. 

As Chief Executive of the State, he won the praises 
of every party, and the respect of every class. 

In 1872 Gen. Hayes was again a candidate for 
Congress; but the momentum of the new Liberal Ee- 
publican and Democratic combination was too great to 
be overcome by personal popularity or individual 
ability. Hon. William Allen was elected governor, 
and Gen. Hayes defeated in his own district. It 
appears from his speeches, and the reports of the can- 
vass, that he did not enter into the campaign with much 
zest; and it is not probable that he cared much for the 
lesser office, having repeatedly held, and so recently 
refused, a greater. 

When the result of that election was known. Gen. 
Hayes resolved to seek in a retired life that quiet and 
rest which both he and his wife so much desired. His 
purpose to enter no more into the turmoil of political 
strife, and to return no more to the less weighty battles 
of the courts, appears to have been fixed beyond the 
slightest reservation. He had done his duty, and now 
could spend the remainder of his days in the sweet 
peace of a rural home. 



CHAPTER XXII. 



POLITICAL TEXTS. 



Expressions by Gen. Hayes. — His Political Creed. — The Motives of 
his Life. — The Principles by which he has been governed. — The 
Safeguards of the Nation. 

DuBiKG Gen. Hayes's public life, before the impor- 
tant events which find a place in the succeeding chap- 
ters, he made many speeches, and from them had often 
been taken some expression as a text for the campaigns. 
In them can be found much of his political creed ; and 
we insert them for such as may desire to study more 
carefully his character in a political light. 

The following are some of his sayings, viz. : — 

" The government ought not to interfere with religi- 
ous sects; and religious sects ought not to interfere with 
government or political parties." 

" Our motto is, Honest money for all, and free schools 
for all. There should be no inflation which will destroy 
the one, and no sectarian influence which will destroy 
the other." 

" I hope to be able, without forgetting my Republi- 



186 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

canism, to so act on a large majority of subjects as to 
secure the approval of my constituents of all parties." 

" There is no halfway house between honest payments 
and repudiation." 

" It is the past record of a statesman for patriotism 
for wisdom, for statesmanship, that is the best pledge 
of his future." 

" Until every question arising out of the Rebellion, 
relating to the integrity of the nation, relating to the 
rights of man, relating to the payment of the debt, has 
been settled, and wisely settled, this people should 
trust with power no man, who, during the great strug- 
gle for the nation's life, was unfaithful to the cause of 
Union and of liberty." 

" Irredeemable currency is the parent of panics." 

" The credit of the nation depends on its ability and 
disposition to keep its promises." 

" We attack no sect and no man, Protestant or Jew, 
Catholic or unbeliever, on account of his honest con- 
victions in regard to religion." 

" If you want a law faithfully and fairly administered, 
intrust power only to its friends." 

" The congressman who maintains good relations with 
the Executive usually receives a larger share of patron- 
age than one who is independent. The system is a 
bad one. It degrades the civil service. It ought to be 
abolished. We ought to have a reform of the system 
of appointments of the civil service, thorough, radical, 
and complete." 



POLITICAL TEXTS. 187 

" Laws ought to be as few and simple and brief as 
possible." 

"All schemes to influence legislation by what is 
termed ' log-rolling,' and by ' rings,' are to be unquali- 
fiedly condemned." 

" It is for our interest that the condition of the South 
should be one of universal prosperity and universal 
peace." 

" Every dollar of our bonded debt should be dis- 
charged honestly, and no stain left on the good name 
of the nation." 

" Inquire who Jeff Davis wants elected, and the 
patriot can tell whom he does not want elected." 

" I must tell the truth, and be honest with the people, 
or I do not deserve their votes." 

" Make no mistakes which shall make glad the heart 
of a traitor." 

" Long sessions, excessive legislation, reckless expen- 
ditures — let there be a reform as to all of them." 

" Trust no man with power until reconstruction is 
complete, who was unfaithful to the country during 
the war." 

" We maintain that there ought to be a thorough and 
sweeping reform." 

" Color ought to have no more to do with voting than 
size." 

"Justice and equality are the sure foundations of 
prosperity and peace." 

" The reason I am in favor of impartial suffrage, is 
because it is rigUty 



188 LITE OF EUTHEKFORD B. HAYES. 

" In politics, in morals, in public and in private life, 
the right is always expedient." 

" In every republican State the military power must 
be in subordination to the civil." 

" Whoever seeks to divide this nation into two sec- 
tions — into a North and a South — is opposed to the 
nation." 

"Great political movements always have some ade- 
quate cause." 

" Ours is not the government o£ the native born or of 
the foreign born, or of the rich man or of the poor 
man, of the white man or of the colored man : it is the 
government of the freemam" 

"The authority of the United States ought to be 
asserted and maintained." 

" Any man who would leave the army at tliis time to 
electioneer for Congress ought to be scalped." 
« TeU Gov. Tod I'll be on hand." 
" If I leave my post before the enemy, I shall deserve 
defeat." 

" The loyal people of the South need special and power- 
ful protection." 

" South Carolina was truly represented there ; but the 
world knows that old Massachusetts, the Massachusetts 
of Lexington, of Concord, of Bunker Hill, was not 
there." 

"Loyalty should be respected, and treason made 
odious." 

" The national obligations to the people who furnished 



POLITICAL TEXTS. 189 

men and means to crusli the Rebellion should be faith- 
fully fulfilled." 

" The resolutions of conventions afford no security 
to the nation." 

" Submission to what is wrong can never be the foun- 
dation of a real peace or a lasting union." 

" We ask nothing but what is right : we will submit 
to nothing that is wrong." 

" I would prefer to go into the war, if I knew I was 
to die or be killed in the course of it, rather than to 
live through and after it, without taking part in it." 

" It is every man's duty to do what he can to make 
others happy." 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

GEK. HAYES'S HOME. 

Death of Sardis Birchard. — Gen. Hayes becomes his Heir. —De- 
scription of the Estate he left. — Its Occupancy by Gen. Hayes. — 
Its Simplicity and Cleanliness. — Gen. Hayes purposes to remain 
upon it, and avoid Political Promotion. — His Speech at a Recep- 
tion in Fremont. 

In January, 1874, Sardis Birchard died, leaving all 
his large estates and banking investments to Gen. 
Hayes. His remarkable career, from the time he pur- 
chased the first little drove of hogs which fed upon the 
refuse grain in the yard of Lamb & Hayes's, distillery 
at Delaware, to his becoming the wealthiest banker in 
Central Ohio, is full of interest, and often as exciting 
as a romance. But through it all, as if furnishing a 
motive for his otherwise lonely life, his love for his 
nephew glows with sweetness and constancy, casting a 
halo of brightness about the most ordinary transactions. 
His home was ever a haven of rest to his weary 
nephew ; and no person ever called on Uncle Birchard, 
in the name of Rutherford, without being welcomed, 
.assisted, and honored. He was a public benefactor, 
often bestowing hberally toward pubhc charities, and 
at one time presenting a large and beautiful park, and 

190 



GEN. HAYES'S HOME. 191 

fifty thousand dollars in money, to the town of Fre- 
mont, the home of his later years. Yet in all these he 
consulted his nephew to see if the gift was approved 
by him. When old age, and premonitions of his likeli- 
hood to soon see the end of his days, pressed close upon 
hun, he was anxious that Gen. Hayes and his family 
should make their home in Fremont ; and, in accord- 
ance with his desire, they took up their residence there 
one or two years before his death, and have not been 
absent since, except when at their temporary residence 
in Columbus, since he has been elected governor the 
third time. 

The house which Gen. Hayes and his family now 
inhabit as their home is the same estate at Fremont 
which Mr. Birchard adorned ; and they occupy the same 
brick house built by him in 1862. It is a plain two- 
story building, with a gable-roof, and an L of the same 
material and outline. Since the governor's occupancy, 
he has built a frame addition to the L, of spacious pro- 
portions, for the working and living convenience of his 
servants. A piazza of generous shelter, but unpainted 
floor, extends across the front-end and the two sides of 
the main building. As a writer for " The Toledo 
Blade " remarks, " there is not a tower, nor balcony, nor 
finial, nor filagree of any kind. The bricks know neither 
drab nor red paint, but are of the good red color, of 
well sanded mortar and from a well-burnt kiln." 

The house fronts squarely to the east, and stands 
upon the margin of a grove of grand old oaks and 



192 LIFE OF BUTHERFOED B. HAYES. 

Mckories, from whose branches the native fox, squirrel, 
and red-tufted woodcock have never been frightened. 

At the right, within the hall, is a decidedly narrow 
staircase ; at the left, is the door opening into the parlor ; 
and in front is another, opening into the sitting-room. 
Upon the wall by the closet-door, under the staircase, 
is a small, cheap hanging hat^rack. 

The parlor is a room about fifteen by twenty feet, 
with a Brussels carpet of red and green figure ; chairs 
and divans upholstered in haircloth, and some in green 
rep ; two marble-topped tables ; a piano ; a stand and 
stereoscope with views ; and well-curtained windows, 
but no lambrequins. Upon the walls are chromos and 
paintings, the chief of which is a fine portrait of the 
governor's benefactor, Mr. Birchard. The ceilings and 
walls are unpapered, and untouched with fresco, or 
gilding, or plaster ornament. They are finished in 
spotless white ; and so are all the walls throughout the 
house, except the dining-room. 

The sitting-room is a comfortable, well-used apart- 
ment, in which the poorest or the richest could feel 
equally at home. 

Upon the wall are various pictures, and one very 
fine group of the governor and Mrs. Hayes with their 
children, Richard A., twenty-two years of age, now 
at Harvard Law-school; Webb C, nineteen, now at 
Columbus; Rutherford P., seventeen, also at Colum- 
bus ; and the next youngest, Fannie, the only daugli- 
ter ; and Scott, a little five-year-old boy. Upon the 



GEN. HAYES'S HOME. 193 

mantle are large kerosene lamps, trimmed and ready. 
In this room are held family prayers ; Mrs. Hayes being 
a member of the Methodist Church, and her husband 
an attendant with her. 

From the sitting-room, a door opens into the gov- 
ernor's sleeping-room, with a pleasant outlook to the 
south. 

The dining-room is entered from the sitting-room, 
and is now a spacious apartment, having been made 
so by the governor soon after the death of his uncle, by 
opening into one fine room that which the old gentle- 
man had partitioned off into two or three. Around the 
long extension-table, standing in the centre, the gov- 
ernor has generously regaled his professional, military, 
political, and private friends. Upon the wall facing 
the chair from which the governor serves the viands 
is a fine engraving of the martyr Lincoln ; and on the 
right wall is a picture of Washington. Here, as in 
the parlor, is simplicity. The table is of ash ; and the 
chairs are cane-seated, like those in a good hotel. 
Wine and other liquors are not a beverage at that 
table, nor are cigars or tobacco used here by any of 
the family. 

The second story is divided into chambers occupied 
by his family, and for library purposes ; two rooms 
being crowded with shelving and books. Here is one 
of the tables upon which the governor writes many of 
his letters, and transacts much of his business, when at 
home, and upon which, it is said, were blocked out many 



194 LIFE OF EUTHEBFORD B. HAYES. 

of his brilliant and triumphant campaigns. It is simply 
an unpainted pine board resting on two stools made in 
the shape of carpenter's " saw-horses." The library is 
very extensive and very choice, including all the stand- 
ard English and American authors. 

About the house are forty acres of grove or wood- 
land ; and to the north of that are the open acres of 
the general's large farm. Convenient walks covered 
with tan bark, and spacious macadamized carriage-ways, 
open the grounds to the strolls of the inmate or visitor ; 
while a great number of squirrels and birds inhabit 
every sly nook. 

Every thing about the estate, within and without, 
is indicative of comfort and thrift. The small-pattern 
carpet in the hall-way, the bright little figures in the 
parlor carpet, the plain white muslin curtains at the 
windows, the substantial haircloth furniture, the neat 
but cheap pictures on the walls, the cleanliness of 
every thing, and the "stylishness" of nothing, speaks 
touchingly of the true housewife, the noble consort, 
the faithful Christian mother, of whom we would love 
to speak further, were our respect for the sacredness 
and security of that holy precinct — the family-circle 
everywhere — less binding upon our conscience. 

The cragged trees, the wide veranda, the convenient 
arrangement of the buildings, all indicate the control 
and supervising care of one who loves realities less 
than sham, convenience rather than vain display. 

The house is located a little more than half a mile 



GEN. HAYES'S HOME. 195 

from tlie business centre of Fremont, near enough for 
obtaining the privileges of the city, and yet sufficiently 
remote to gain all the beauty, simplicity, and rural 
retirement of a home in the country. 

In that place Gen. Hayes had taken up his abode 
with the pleasing prospect of a happy and undisturbed 
life for himself and his loved ones, when the events 
of 1875 broke in upon his repose, and forcibly drew 
him from his chosen retreat. 

The people of Fremont were no less pleased to have 
him among them than he was to reside there ; and on 
the evening of June 24, 187G, after his nomination for 
the presidency of the United States, they all came out, 
irrespective of party, to congratulate him, and welcome 
him home from Columbus. At that reception he 
made the following references to his residence among 
them : — 

" I need not attempt to express the emotions I feel 
at the reception which the people of Fremont, and of 
this county, have given me to-night. Under any cir- 
cumstances, an assemblage of this sort, at my home, to 
welcome me, would touch me, and would excite the 
warmest emotions of gratitude ; but what gives to this 
its distinctive character is the fact that those that are 
prominent in welcoming me home, I know very well, 
in the past, have not voted with me or for me, and they 
do not intend, in the future, to vote with me or for me. 
It is simply that, coming to my home, they rejoice that 
Ohio, that Sandusky County, that the town of Fremont, 



196 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

has received at that convention that honor; and I 
thank you, Democrats, fellow-citizens, Independents, 
and Republicans, for this spontaneous and warm and 
enthusiastic reception. I trust, that, in the course of 
events, the time will never come that you will have 
cause to regret what you do to-night. It is a very great 
responsibility that has been placed upon me, to be a 
representative of twenty millions of people, — a respon- 
sibility which I know very well I am not equal to per- 
form. I understand very well that it was not by reason 
of ability or talents that I was chosen. There were 
accidents and contingencies that caused this result ; 
but that which does rejoice me is, that here, where I 
have been born, and where I spent my childhood, there 
are those that come and rejoice at the result. 

" Let me, if I may do it without too much egotism, 
recur to the history of my connection with Fremont. 
Forty-two years ago my uncle, Sardis Birchard, came 
to this place; and I rejoice, my friends, at the good 
taste and feeling which has placed his portrait here 
to-night. He, having adopted me as his child, brought 
me to Fremont. I recollect well the appearance of the 
then Lower Sandusky, consisting of a few wooden 
buildings scattered along the river, with very little 
paint on them, and these trees, none of them grown ; 
the old fort still having some of its earth-works remain- 
ing, so that it could be easily traced. A pleasant vil- 
lage this was for a boy to enjoy himself in. There 
was the fishino: on the river, shooting water-fowls over 



GEN. HAYES'S HOME. 197 

the dam, on tlie island, and tlie lake ; and perhaps no 
boy ever enjoyed his departure from home better than 
I did when I came to Fremont. But now see what 
Fremont is, how it has grown. It has not increased to 
a first-class city ; but it has become a pleasant home, so 
pleasant and so thriving, that I rejoice to think, that, 
whatever may be the result next fall, it will be pleas- 
ant to return to it when all is over. If defeated, I 
shall return to you often er than if I go to the White 
House ; and, if I go there, I shall rejoice at the time 
when I shall be permitted to return to you, to be a 
neighbor with you again ; and really we have no cause 
not to be satisfied with our home and the large inter- 
ests which will be for us here in the future. Larger 
cities always have some strife and rivalry, from which 
we are free ; and yet we are situated between two com- 
mercial centres. East and West, between which is the 
great highway of the world, and we cannot but par- 
take of their prosperity. Those of our friends who 
travel to Europe return sometimes dissatisfied, because 
there is a roughness in this country not seen in Eng- 
land and the older countries of Europe ; but then the 
greatest happiness, as all of us know, in preparing a 
garden or a house, is to see the improvements growing 
up in our hands. This is what we enjoy; and the 
change in Fremont from the time I first knew it, till 
to-day, gives me pleasure. 

" There is another change which makes me feel 
sadder, and gives rise to mournful reflections. When 



198 LIFE OF EUTHERFOED B. HAYES. 

I came here in 18G4, I learned the names of many 
citizens who knew me in my boyhood. There was, Mr. 
Mayor, yonr father, Rudolphus Dickinson, Thomas 
Hawkins, and, among others, that marvel of business 
energy, George Grant. And so I might go on giving 
name after name ; but it is true, that, of all that I 
remember seeing on that first visit, not one is with us 
to-night. All those who came with me — my mother, 
my sister — are gone. I have been touched scarcely 
by any thing that has occurred since the nomination, as 
much as by a letter from a friend at Norwalk, who wrote, 
'If Sardis Birchard could only have lived to know this.' 
But this is the order of Providence. Events follow 
upon one another as wave follows wave upon the ocean. 
It is for each man to do what he can to make others 
happy. That is the prayer, and that is the duty, of 
life. Let us, my friends, in every position, undertake 
to perform this. For me, I have no reliance except 
that which Abraham Lincoln had when he went from 
his friends at Springfield, when he said to his friends, 
' I go to Washington to assume a responsibility greater 
than that which has been devolved upon any one since 
the first president; and I beg you, my friends and 
neighbors, to pray that I may have that divine assist- 
ance, without which I cannot succeed, and with which 
I cannot fail.' [Cheers.] In that spirit I ask you to 
deal with me. [Cheers.] If it shall be the will of the 
people that this nomination shall be ratified, all will be 
well. If, on the other hand, it shall be the will of the 



GEK. HAYES'S HOME. 199 

people that another shall assume these great responsi- 
bilities, let us see to it that we who oppose him give 
him a fair trial, and also our prayers. 

" My friends, I thank you for the interest you have 
taken in this reception, and that you have laid aside 
partisan feeling. There has been too much bitterness, 
on such occasions, in this country. Let us see to it, 
that the abuse or vituperation of the candidate that 
shall be named at St. Louis does not proceed from our 
lips ; let us, on this centennial occasion, this second 
century of our existence, set an example of what a free 
and intelligent nation can do. 

" There is assembled at Philadelphia an assemblage 
representing nearly all nations of the world, with their 
arts and manufactures. We have invited competition ; 
and they have come to compete with us and with each 
other. We find that America stands well with the 
works of the world, as there exhibited. We rejoice to 
know that Ohio stands well in that comparison. Let 
us show, in electing a chief magistrate of the nation, 
the officer that is to be the first of forty or forty-five 
millions of people ; let us show all those who visit 
us how the American people can conduct themselves 
through a canvass of this sort. If it shall be in the 
spirit in which we have met here to-night, if it shall be 
that justness and fairness shall be in all the discussions, 
it will commend free institutions to the world in a 
way which they have never been commended before. 
[Cheers.] 



200 LIFE OF EUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

" About the middle of the war, Gen. Sherman lost a 
boy named after himself, aged about ten or thirteen 
years. He supposed that he belonged to the Thirteenth 
Infantry ; and when they went out to drill, or dress- 
parade, he dressed in the dress of a sergeant, and 
marched with them : but he sickened, and died. The 
regiment gathered about him ; for he was to them a 
comrade as dear as a child is loved by men who are 
torn away from the associations of home. Gen. Sher- 
man, the great soldier, was touched by it. He said 
that it would be idle for him to try to express the 
gratitude which he felt; but he said they held the 
affections of himself and family ; and, if any of them 
should ever be in need, if they would just mention 
that they belonged to the Thirteenth Infantry the time 
his boy died, they would divide with him to the last 
blanket and the last morsel of food. It is in this 
spirit that I wish to express my feehngs to the people 
of Fremont for the welcome given me to-night." 



GEN. HAYES S HOME. 



201 




CHAPTER XXIV. 

STATE CAMPAIGN OP 1875. 

Called again to lead liis Party. — His Support of Judge Taf t. — His 
Eeluctant Consent to be a Candidate for Governor. — His Great 
Speech at Marion. — Hard Money. — The School Question. — 
Catholic Voters. — Triumphant Election. 

One wlio was connected with the events of 1875, 
and knew all the ch'cumstances which drew Gen. Hayes 
from his quiet home into the arena of political warfare, 
has written, concerning these events, that " the Demo- 
crats had the governor, the legislature, the secretary of 
state, the school commissioner, and clerk of the Supreme 
Court, all elected on the popular vote ; and had carried 
the State the year before by a majority of nearly 
seventeen thousand. That majority had to be overcome 
to achieve Republican success ; and all over the State 
there was a popular acclaim that Gen. Hayes was the 
man to overcome it. There were grave doubts, how- 
ever, as to whether he would accept the nomination, 
and not without reason. To all who had approached 
him on this subject, he had expressed an extreme dis- 
inclination to do so, and had discouraged, to the full 
extent that he could, the use of his name. Neverthe- 

202 



STATE CAMPAIGN OF 1875. 203 

less, public sentiment in his favor ra]Diclly grew in force 
and volume, and, by the time the State convention met 
in June, was simply overwhelming. There was no 
longer any doubt as to whether he would be nominated ; 
but it was still by no means certain that he would 
accept the nomination. The only other candidate pro- 
posed for governor was Judge Taft of Cincinnati, whose 
high standing and abilities were universally acknowl- 
edged, and were warmly pressed upon the convention 
by earnest friends. Gen. Hayes himself favored the 
nomination of Judge Taft, and, in reply to telegrams, 
strongly recommended it, at the same time speaking in 
the highest terms of Mr. Taft, and positively refusing 
to be a candidate against him. With this despatch 
before it, the convention assembled, and, on the first 
ballot, cast four-fifths of its votes for Gen. Hayes. That 
there might be no obstacle in the way of his accept- 
ance. Judge Taft gracefully authorized the withdrawal 
of his name ; and the nomination was made unanimous, 
amid great enthusiasm. Gen. Hayes was promptly 
notified of this action, and, in reply, telegraphed, — 

" ' In obedience to the wishes of the convention, I 
yield my preference, and accept the nomination.' " 

Like Cincinnatus the Roman statesman, Hayes pre- 
ferred his fields of wheat, his droves of cattle and swine, 
to the loftiest and easiest position which the nation could 
bestow, and left them only when there was an unmis- 
takable need of him in the councils of state. Again 
was he the leader of an arduous, and, but for his per- 
sonal power, a hopeless campaign. 



204 LIFE OF RUTHEEFOED B. HAYES. 

He did not desire either office or emolument. The 
President had tempted him with a shining bait a short 
time before, Avhen he requested Hayes to accept the 
nomination for assistant United States treasurer at 
Cincinnati ; but he could not be moved. Now, how- 
ever, when he considers that the people need instruc- 
tion, and the nation a defender in Ohio, he takes the 
field, and bravely faces the supporters of sectarian 
schools, and of a spurious currency, who have had con- 
trol of his State so long. 

In this campaign it is said that he made the most 
effective and eloquent sj)eeches of his life ; and, as we 
promised to do in a previous chapter, we now give one 
of them in full. It was delivered at Marion, Lawrence 
County, O., July 31, 1875. 

" Fellow-citizejis of Lawrence County, it is a gratifi- 
cation, for which I wish to make my acknowledgments 
to the Hepublican committee of this county, to have tlie 
privilege of beginning, in behalf of the Republicans 
of Ohio, the oral discussions of this important polit- 
ical canvass before the j^eople of Lawrence County. 
Although my residence is separated from yours by the 
whole breadth of the State-, we are not strangers. We 
have met before on similar occasions ; and some of you 
were my comrades in the Union army during a consid- 
erable part of the late civil conflict, which ended ten 
years ago. Tliose who had the honor and the happi- 
ness to serve together during that memorable struggle 



STATE CAMPAIGN OF 1875. 205 

are not likely to forget each other. We shall forever 
regard those four years as the most interesting period 
of our Hves. 

"The great majority of the people of Lawrence 
County, citizens as well as soldiers, have also good 
reason to recall the events and scenes of that contest 
with satisfaction and pride. 

" The official records of the State show how well Law- 
rence County performed her part in the war for tho 
Union. From the beginning to the end, — with the ballot 
at home, and with the musket in the field, — this county 
stood among the foremost of all the communities in the 
United States in devotion to the good cause ; and, since 
the nation's triumph, Lawrence County, sooner or later 
(but never too late to rejoice in the final and decisive 
victory), has supported every measure required to secure 
the legitimate results in that triumph. You have done 
your part forever to set at rest the great questions of 
the past. It is settled that the United States constitute 
a nation, and that their government possesses ample 
power to maintain its authority, over every part of its 
territory, against all opposers. It is settled that no 
man under the American flag can be a slave. It is 
settled that all men born or naturalized in the United 
States, and within its jurisdiction, shall be citizens there- 
of, and have equal civil and political rights. It is settled 
that the debt contracted to save the nation is sacred, 
and shall be honestly paid. You may well be congrat- 
ulated, that, on all of these questions, you fought and 
voted on the ri^ht side. 



206 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

" Fortunately there is still further cause for congratu- 
lation. Our adversaries — who were on the wrong side 
of all these questions, and who opposed us on all of 
them to the very last — are now compelled to be silent 
in their platform on every one of them. Not a single 
one of their fourteen resolutions raises any question 
on any of these long-contested subjects. It is not 
strange that they are silent. I do not choose, on this 
occasion, to recall the predictions of evil which they so 
confidently made when discussing the measures to 
which I have referred. It is enough for my present, 
purpose to point to the grand results. When the 
Republican party, with Abraham Lincoln as president, 
received the government from the hands of the Demo- 
cratic party, fifteen years ago, the Union of the fathers 
was destroyed. A hostile nation, dedicated to perpetual 
slavery, had been established south of the Potomac, and 
claimed jurisdiction over one-third of the people and 
territory of the republic. These States were ' dis- 
severed, discordant, belligerent : ' our land was rent 
with civil feud, and ready to be drenched in fraternal 
blood. Now, behold the change ! The Union is re- 
established on firmer foundations than ever before. 
Brave men in the South, who were then in battle-array 
against us, now stand side by side with the Union 
soldiers, no shadow of discord between them. Slavery, 
which was then an impassable gulf between the hostile 
sections, is now gone ; and good men of the South unite 
with good men of the North in thanking God that it 



STATE CAMPAIGN OF 1875. 207 

is forever a thing of the past. Then there was no 
freedom of speech or of press, no friendly mingling- 
together of the people of the two sections of the coun- 
try: now the people of the South receive, and greet 
as a fellow-citizen and a friend, the vice-president, a 
citizen of Massachusetts, and an antislavery man from 
his youth ; and Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina 
send their distinguished sons to celebrate with New 
England the centennial anniversaries of the early 
battles of the Revolution. The men of the North and 
the men of the South are now everywhere coming 
together in a spirit of harmony and friendship, which 
this generation has not witnessed before, and which has 
not existed now since Jeffeison was startled by that 
'fire-bell in the night,' the Missouri question, more 
than fifty years ago. 

" In this era of good feeling and reconciliation, a few 
men of morbid temperament, blind to what is passing 
before them, still talk of 'bayonets,' and 'tyranny 
and cruelty to the South,' and seek in vain to revive 
the prejudices and passions of the past. But there is 
barely enough of this angry dissent to remind us of the 
terrible scenes through which we have passed, and to 
fill us with gratitude that the house which was divided 
against itself is divided no longer, and that all of its 
inhabitants now have a fair start, and an equal chance, 
in the race of life. 

" Let us now i:)roceed to the consideration of some of 
the questions which engage the attention of the people 



208 LIFE OF EUTHEEFORD B. HAYES. 

of Ohio. The war which the Democratic party and its 
doctrines brought upon the country left a large debt, 
heavy taxation, depreciated currency, and an unhealthy 
condition of business, which resulted, two years ago, in 
a financial panic and depression, from which the country 
is now slowly recovering. With this condition of things, 
the Democratic party, in its recent state convention at 
Columbus, undertook to deal. 

" The most important part, in fact the only part, of 
their platform in Ohio this year, which receives or 
deserves much attention, is that in which is proclaimed 
a radical departure on the subject of money from the 
teachings of all of the Democratic fathers. This Ohio 
Democratic doctrine inculcates the abandonment of 
gold and silver as a standard of value. Hereafter gold 
and silver are to be used as money only ' where respect 
for the obligation of contracts requires payment in 
coin.' The only currency for the people is to be paper 
money, issued directly by the General Government, ' its 
volume to be made and kept equal to the wants of the 
trade,' and with no provision whatever for its redemp- 
tion in coin. The Democratic candidate for lieutenant- 
governor, who opened the canvass for his party, states 
the money issue substantially as I have. Gen. Gary, 
in his Barnesville speech, says, — 

" ' Gold and silver, when used as money, are redeem- 
able in any property there is for sale in the nation, will 
pay taxes for any debt, public or private. This alone 
gives them their money value. If you had a hundred 



STATE CAMPAIGN OF 1875. 209 

gold eagles, and you could not exchange tliem for the 
necessaries of life, they would be trash, and you would 
be glad to exchange them for greenbacks, or any thing 
else that you could use to purchase what you require. 
With an absolute paper money stamped hy the government^ 
and made a legal tender for all purposes^ and its func- 
tions as money are as perfect as gold or silver can 5e.' 

" This is the financial scheme which the Democratic 
party asks the people of Ohio to approve at the elec- 
tion in October. The Republicans accept the issue. 
Whether considered as a permanent policy, or as an 
expedient to mitigate present evils, we arc opposed to 
it. It is without warrant in the Constitution ; and it 
violates all sound financial principles. 

" The objections to an inflated and irredeemable paper 
currency are so many, that I do not attempt to state 
them all. They are so obvious and so familiar, that I 
need not elaborately present or argue them. All of 
the mischief which commonly follows inflated and 
incontrovertible paper money may be expected from 
this plan ; and, in addition, it has very dangerous ten- 
dencies which are peculiarly its own. An irredeemable 
and inflated paper currency promotes speculation and 
extravagance, and, at the same time, discourages legiti- 
mate busmess, honest labor, and economy. It dries up 
the true sources of individual and public prosperity; 
overtrading and fast living always go with it ; it stimu- 
lates the desire to incur debt ; it causes high rates of 
interest ; it increases importations from abroad ; it has 



210 LIFE OF RUTHEEFORD B. HAYES. 

no fixed value ; it is liable to frequent and great fluc- 
tuations, thereby rendering every pecuniary engage- 
ment precarious, and disturbing all existing contracts 
and expectations; it is the parent of panics; every 
period of inflation is followed by a loss of confidence, 
a shrinkage of values, depression of business, panics, 
lack of employment, and widespread disaster and dis- 
tress ; the heaviest part of the calamity falls on those 
least able to bear it. The wholesale dealer, the middle- 
man, and the retailer, always endeavor to cover the 
risks of the fickle standard of value by raising their 
prices ; but the men of small means, and the laborer, 
are thrown out of employment ; and want and suffering 
are liable soon to follow. 

" When government enters upon the experiment of 
issuing irredeemable paper money, there can be no 
fixed limit to its volume. The amount will depend on 
the interest of the leading politicians, on their whims, 
and on the excitement of the hour. It affords such 
facility for contracting debt, that extravagant and cor- 
rupt government expenditures are the sure result. 
Under the name of public improvements, the wildest 
enterprises, contrived for private gain, are undertaken. 
Indefinite expansion becomes the rule, and, in the end, 
bankruptcy, ruin, and repudiation. 

During the last few years, a great deal has been said 
about the centralizing tendency of recent events in 
our history. The increasing power of the government 
at Washinorton has been a favorable theme for Demo- 



STATE CAMPAIGN OF 1875. 211 

cratic declamation. But where, since the formation of 
the government, has a proposition been seriously enter- 
tained which would confer such monstrous and danger- 
ous powers on the General Government as this inflation 
scheme of the Ohio Democracy? During the war for 
the Union, solely on the ground of necessity, the Gov- 
ernment issued the legal tender or greenback currency ; 
but they accompanied it with a solemn pledge in the 
following words, of the Act of June 20, 1864 : — 

" ' Nor shall the total ^amount of United States notes 
issued, or to be issued, ever exceed four hundred mil- 
lions, and such additional sum, not exceeding fifty 
millions, as may be temporarily required for redemp- 
tion of temporary loans.' 

"But the Ohio inflationists, in a time of peace, on 
grounds of mere expediency, propose an inconvertible 
paper currency, with its volume limited only by the 
discretion or caprice of its issuers, or their judgment 
as to the wants of the trade. The most distinguished 
gentleman whose name is associated with the subject 
once said, ' The process must be conducted with skill 
and caution, ... by men whose position will enable 
them to guard against any evil.' And, using a favorite 
illustration, he said, ' The secretary of the treasury 
ought to be able to judge. His hand is upon the jDulse 
of the country : he can feci all the throbbings of the 
blood in the arteries : he can tell when the blood flows 
too fast and strong, and when the expansion should 
cease.' This brings us face to face with the fundamen- 



212 LIFE OF EUTHEEFORD B. HAYES. 

tal error of this dangerous policy. The trouble is, the 
pulse of the patient will not so often decide the 
question as the interest of the doctor. No man, no 
government, no Congress, is wise enough and pure 
enough to be trusted with the tremendous power over 
the business and property and labor of the country. 
That which concerns so intimately all business should 
be decided, if possible, on business principles, and not 
be left to depend on the exigencies of politics, the 
interests of party, or the ambition of public men. It 
will not do for property, for business, or for labor, to 
be at the mercy of a few political leaders at Washing- 
ton, either in or out of Congress. The best way to 
prevent it is to apply to paper money the old test 
sanctioned by the experience of all nations, — let it be 
convertible into coin. If it can respond to this test, it 
will be, as nearly as possible, sound, safe, and stable. 

" The Republicans of Ohio are in favor of no sudden 
or harsh measures. They do not propose to force 
resumption by a contraction of the currency. Thsy see 
that the ship is headed in the right direction ; and they 
do not wish to lose what has already been gained. 
They are satisfied to leave to the influences of time, 
and the inherent energy and resources of the country, 
the work that yet remains to be done to place our 
currency at par. We believe that what our country 
now needs to revive business, and to give employment 
to labor, is a restoration of confidence. We need confi- 
dence in the stability and soundness of the financial 



STATE CAJIPAIGN OP 1875. 213 

policy of the government. That confidence has, for 
many months past, been slowly but steadily increasing. 
The Columbus Democratic platform comes in as a dis- 
turbing element, and giyes a severe shock to reviving 
confidence. The country believed, and rejoiced to 
believe, that Senator Thurman expressed the sober 
judgment of Ohio, when he spoke last year in the 
Senate on this subject. The senator said, March 24, 
1874, — 

" ' Never have I spoken of that inflation of the cur- 
rency which, I think I see full well, means that there 
shall never be any resumption at all. That is the dif- 
ference. It is one thing to contract the currency with 
a view to the resumption of specie payments: it is 
another thing neither to contract nor enlarge it, but 
let resumption come naturally, and as soon as the 
business and production of the country will bring it 
about. But it is a very different thing indeed to inflate 
the currency with a view never, in all time, to redeem 
it at all; and that is precisely what this inflation 
means. It means demonitizing gold and silver in per- 
petuity, and substituting a currency of iiTedeemable 
paper, based wholly and entirely upon government 
credit, and depending upon the opinion and the inter- 
ests of the members of Congress, and their hopes of 
popularity, whether the volume of it shall be large or 
small. That is what this inflation means. Sir, I have 
never said any thing in favor of that : I am too old- 
fashioned a Democrat for that. I cannot give up the 



214 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

convictions of a lifetime, whether they be popular or 
unpopular.' 

" April 6, when the Senate inflation bill was debated, 
he said, — 

" ' It simply means that no man of my age shall ever 
again see in this country that kind of currency which 
the framers of the Constitution intended should be the 
currency of the Union, which every sound writer on 
political economy, the world over, says, is the only 
currency that defrauds no man. It means, that so long 
as I live and possibly, long after I shall be laid in the 
grave, this people shall have nothing but an irredeema- 
ble currency with which to transact their business, — 
that currency which has been well described as the 
most effective invention that ever the wit of man 
devised to fertilize the rich man's field by the sweat of 
the poor man's brow. I will have nothing to do with 
it.' 

" How great the shock which was given to returning 
confidence by the Democratic action at Columbus 
abundantly appears by the manner in which the plat- 
form is received by the Liberal and the English and 
the German Democratic press throughout the United 
States. The Liberal press and the German press, so 
far as I have observed, in the strongest terms condemn 
the platform. They speak of it as disturbing confi- 
dence, shaking credit, and threatening reimdiation. A 
large part of the Democratic press of other States is 
hardly less emphatic. It would be strange indeed, if 



STATE CAMPAIGN OF 1875. 215 

this were otherwise. In Ohio, less than two years ago, 
the convention which nominated Gov. Allen resolved, 
speaking of the Democratic party, that, ' it recognizes 
the evils of an irredeemable paper currency, but insists, 
that, in the return to specie payment, care should be 
taken not to seriously disturb the business of the coun- 
try, or injure the debtor class.' There was no inflation 
then. Now come the soft money leaders of the Demo- 
cratic party, and try to persuade the people that the 
promises of the United States should only be redeemed 
by other promises, and that it is sound policy to in- 
crease them. 

"The credit^ of the nation depends on its ability and 
d ispos ition to keep its promises. If it fails to keep 
them, and suffers them to depreciate, its credit is 
tainted, and it must pay high rates of interest on all 
of its loans. For many years we must be a borrower in 
the markets of the world. The interest-bearing debt 
is over seven hundred millions of dollars. If we could 
borrow money at the same rate with some of the great 
nations of Europe, we could save, perhaps, two per cent 
per annum on this sum. Thirty or forty millions a 
year we are paying on account of tainted credit. The 
more promises to pay an individual issues, without 
redeeming them, the worse becomes his credit. It is 
the same with nations. The legal-tender note of five 
dollars is the promise of the United States to pay that 
sum in the money of the world, — in coin. No time is 
fixed for its payment. It is, therefore, payable on 



216 LIFE OF KUTHERFOKD B. HAYES. 

presentation, on demand. It is not paid, it is past due ; 
and it is depreciated to tlie extent of twelve per cent. 
The country recognizes the necessities of the situation, 
and waits, and is willing to wait, until the productive 
business of the country enables the government to 
redeem. But the Columbus financiers are not satisfied. 
They demand the issue of more promises. This is 
inflation. No man can doubt the result. The credit of 
the nation will inevitably suffer. There will be further 
depreciation. A depreciation of ten per cent dimin- 
ished the value of the present paper currency from fifty 
to one hundred millions of dollars. Its effect on busi- 
ness would be disastrous in the extreme. The present 
legal tenders have a certain steadiness, because there 
is a limit fixed to their amount. Public opinion con- 
fides in that limit; but let that limit be broken down, 
and all is uncertainty. The authors of this scheme 
believe that inflation is a good thing. When this 
subject was under discussion a few years ago, ' The 
Cincinnati Enquirer ' said, ' The issue of two thou- 
sand millions dollars of currency would only put it in 
the power of each voter to secure four hundred dollars 
for himself and family to spend in the course of a life- 
time. Is there any voter thinks that is too much, — 
more than he will want ? ' This shows what the platform 
means : itjneans inflation without limit ; and inflation 
is the downward path to repudiation. It means ruin 
to the nation's credit and to all individual credit. All 
the rest of the world have the same standard of value. 



I 



STATE CAMPAIGN OF 1875. 217 

Our promises are worthless as currency the moment 
you pass the boundary-line. Even in this country, very 
extensive sections still use the money of the world. 
Texas, the most promising and flourishing State of the 
South, uses coin. California, and the other Pacific 
States and Territories, use the same. Look at their 
condition. Texas and California are not the least pros- 
perous part of the United States. This scheme cannot 
be adopted. The opinion of the civilized world is 
against it ; the vast majority of the ablest newspapers 
of the country are against it; the best minds of the 
Democratic jpa^rty are against it ; the last three Demo- 
cratic candidates for the presidency were against it; 
the German citizens of the United States, so distin- 
guished for industry, for thrift, and for soundness of 
judgment in all practical money-affairs, are a unit 
against it ; the Republican party is against it ; the 
people of Ohio will, I am confident, decide in October 
to have nothing to do with it. 

" Since the adoption of the inflation platform at Co- 
lumbus, a great change has taken place in the feelings 
and views of its friends. Then they were confident ; 
perhaps it is not too much to say that they were dic- 
tatorial and overbearing towards their hard-money 
party associates. There was no doubt as to the intent 
and meaning of the platform. Its friends asserted that 
the country needed more money, and more money now ; 
that the way to got it was to issue government legal- 
tender notes liberally. But the storm of criticism and 



218 LITE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

condemnation which burst upon the platform from 
the soundest Democrats in all quarters has alarmed its 
supporters. Many of them have been seized with a 
panic, and are now utterly stampeded, and in full 
retreat. 

" They say that they are not for inflation, not for 
inconvertible paper monej', and that they never have 
been ; that they are hard-money men, and always have 
been ; that they look forward to a return of specie jjay- 
ment, and that it must always be kept in view. Why, 
what did they mean by that platform ? Did they ex- 
pect to make money plenty by an issue of more coin ? 
Certainly not. By an issue of more paper redeemable 
in coin ? Certainly not. They expected to issue more 
legal-tender notes, — notes irredeemable and depreciated. 
But public opinion, as shown by the press, is so decidedly 
against them, that Ohio inflationists now begin to desert 
their own platform. Even Mr. Pendleton is solicitous 
not to be held responsible for the Columbus scheme. 
He says, ' I speak for myself alone. I do not assume to 
speak for the Democratic party : its convention has 
spoken for it,' and proceeds to interpret the platform 
as if it was for hard-money. Senator Thurman did 
not so understand it. He thought the hard-money men 
were beaten, and felt disappointed. It now looks as if 
Geu. Cary might be left almost alone before the canvass 
ends. If Judge Tliurman could get that convention 
together again, it is evident that he could now, in the 
same body, rout the inflationists, horse, foot, and artil- 



STATE CAMPAIGN OF 1875. 219 

lery. Nothing but a victory in Ohio can put inflation 
again on its legs. Let it be defeated in October, and 
the friends of a sound and honest currency will have a 
clear field for at least the present generation. 

" Two years ago the Democratic party came fully into 
power in Ohio in the State legislature, and, for the first 
time in twenty years, elected the executive of the State. 
They were also intrusted with the affairs of the leading 
cities, and a majority of the wealthiest and most popu- 
lous counties, in the State. It would be profitable to 
inquire how this came about, and what are the results. 
In the course of the canvass, it is my purpose to show, 
in detail, how unfortunate their management of State 
affairs has been. It will appear, on investigation, that 
the interests of the State in the benevolent, penal, and 
reformatory institutions, have been sacrificed to the spoils 
doctrine ; how the cities, and especially the chief city, 
of the State, has suffered by the corruption of its rulers ; 
how public expenditures have been increased, until the 
aggregate of taxation in Ohio, in this time of money 
depression, is vastly larger than ever before ; how the 
number of salaried officers was increased ; how the 
members of the legislature were corrupted by bribery, 
notorious and shameless ; and how tlie dominant party 
utterly failed to deal with this corruption as duty and 
the good name of the State demanded. Fallacious and 
deceptive statements have been made as to the reduc- 
tion of the levy for State taxes, and as to the appropria- 
tions. It is enough now to say. 



220 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

taxation in Ohio, in 1874, was over twenty-seven million 
dollars, a larger sum than was ever before collected by 
tax-gatherers in Ohio. 

" Altogether the most interesting questions in our 
State affairs are those which relate to the passage by the 
last legislature of the Geghan Bill, and to the war which 
the sectarian wing of the Democratic party is now waging 
against the public schools. In the admirable speech 
made by Judge Taft at the Republican State Conven- 
tion, he sounded the keynote to the canvass on this 
subject. He said, ' Our motto must be universal 
liberty and universal suffrage, secured by universal 
education.' Before we discuss these questions, it may 
be well, in order that there may be no excuse for 
further misrepresentation, to show by whom this sub- 
ject was introduced into politics, and to state explicitly 
that we attack no sect, and no man, — either Protestant 
or Jew, Catholic or unbehever, — on account of his 
conscientious convictions in regard to religion. Who 
began the agitation of this subject? Why is it agi- 
tated ? All parties have taken hold of it. The Demo- 
cratic party in their State convention made it the topic 
of their longest resolution. In their platform, they 
gave it more space than any other subject, except 
the currency. Many of the Democratic county con- 
ventions also took action upon it. 

" The Republican State Convention passed resolutions 
on the question. It is stated that it was considered in 
about forty Republican county conventions. The State 



STATE CAMPAIGN OF 1875. 221 

Teachers' Association at their last meeting passed 
unanimously the following resolution. Mr. Tappan, on 
the Committee of Resolutions, reported the follow- 
ing : — 

" ' Resolved, That we are in favor of free, impartial, 
and unsectarian education to every child in the State, 
and that any division of the school fund, or appropria- 
tion of any part thereof to any religious or private 
schools, would be injurious to education and the best 
interests of the Church.' 

" An able address by Rev. Dr. Jeffers of Cleveland, 
showing ' the perils which threaten our public schools,' 
was emphatically applauded by that intelligent body 
of citizens. 

" The assembhes of the different religious denomina- 
tions in the State, which have recently been held, have 
generally, and, I think, without exception, passed similar 
resolutions. If blame is to attach to all who consider 
and discuss this question before the public, we have had 
a very large body of offenders. But I have not named 
all who are engaged in it. I have not named those who 
began it, those who for years have kept it up, those 
who in the press, on the platform, in the pulpit, in 
legislative bodies, in city councils, and in school boards, 
now unceasingly agitate the question. Everybody 
knows who they are. Everybody knows that the 
sectarian wing of the Democratic party begun this 
agitation, and that it is bent on the destruction of our 
free schools. If Republicans, acting on the defensive, 



222 LITE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

discuss the subject, and express the opinion that the 
Democratic party cannot safely be trusted, they are 
denounced in unmeasured terms. Gen. Carr calls them 
' political knaves ' and ' fools ' and ' bigots.' But it 
is very significant that no Democratic speaker de- 
nounces those who began the agitation. All their 
epithets are levelled at the men who are on the right 
side of the question. Agitation on the -wrong side, 
agitation against the schools, may go on. It meets no 
condemnation from leading Democratic candidates and 
speakers. The reason is plain. Those who mean to 
destroy the school system constitute a formidable part 
of the Democratic party, without whose support that 
party, as the legislature was told last spring, cannot 
carry the county, the city, or the state. 

" The sectarian agitation against the public schools 
was begun many years ago. During the last few years, 
it has steadily and rapidly increased, and has been en- 
couraged by various indications of possible success. It 
extends to all of tlie States where schools at the conl- 
mon expense have been long established. Its triumphs 
are mainly in the large towns and cities. It has already 
divided the schools, and, in a considerable degree, 
impaired and limited their usefulness. The glory of 
the American system of education has been, that it 
was so cheap, that the humblest citizen could afford to 
give his children its advantages, and so good, that the 
man of wealth could nowhere provide for his children 
any thing better. This gave the system its most con- 



STATE CAIVIPATGN OF 1876. 223 

spicuous merit. It made it a Republican system. The 
young of all conditions of life are brought together 
and educated on terms of perfect equality. The ten- 
dency of this is to assimilate and to fuse together the 
various elements of our population, to promote unity, 
harmony, and general good-will in our American society. 
But the enemies of the Republican system have begun 
the work of destroying it. They have forced away 
from the public schools, in many towns and many 
cities, one-third to one-fourth of their pupils, and sent 
them to schools, which, it is safe to say, are no whit 
superior to those they have left. These youth are 
thus deprived of the associations and education in prac- 
tical Republicanism and American sentiments, which 
they peculiarly need. Nobody questions their con- 
stitutional and legal rights to do this, and to do it 
by denouncing the public schools. Sectarians have a 
lawful right to say that these schools are ' a relic of 
Paganism, that they are godless,' and that 'the 
secular school system is a social cancer.' But when, 
having thus succeeded in dividing the schools, they 
make that a ground for abolishing school taxation, 
dividing the school fund, or otherwise destroying the 
system, it is time that its friends should rise up in 
its defence. 

" We all agree that neither the government nor po- 
litical parties ought to interfere with religious sects. It 
is equally true that religious sects ought not to interfere 
with the government or political parties. We believe 



224 LIFE OF EFTHEEFORD B. HAYES. 

that the cause of good government and the cause of 
religion both suffer by all such interference. But if 
sectarians make demands for the legislation of political 
parties, and threaten a party with opposition at the 
elections, in case the required enactments are not 
passed, and if the political party yields to such threats, 
then those threats, those demands, and that action of 
the legitimate party, become a legitimate subject of 
political discussion ; and the sectarians who thus 
interfere with the legislation of the State are alone 
responsible for the agitation which follows. 

" And now a few words as to the action of the last 
legislature on this subject. After an examination of 
the Geghan Bill, we shall, perhaps, come to the conclu- 
sion, that, in itself, it is not of great importance. I 
would not undervalue the conscientious scruples, on the 
subject of religion, of the convict in the penitentiary, 
or of any unfortunate person in any State institution. 
But the provision of the Constitution of the State 
covers the whole ground. It needs no awkwardly 
framed statement of doubtful meaning, like the Geghan 
Bill, to accomplish the purpose of the organic law. 
The old Constitution of 1802, and the Constitution 
now in force of 1851, are substantially alike. Both de- 
clare (I quote Sect. 7, Art. 1, Constitution of 1851), — 

" ' All men have a natural and indefeasible right to 
worship Almighty God according to the dictates of 
their own conscience. No person shall be compelled to 
attend, erect, or support any place of worship, or 



STATE CAMPAIGN OF 1875. 225 

maintain any form of worship, against his consent ; 
and no preference shall be given by law to any reli- 
gious society ; nor shall any interference with the 
right of conscience be permitted.' 

" If the Geghan Bill is merely a re-enactment of this 
part of the Bill of Rights, it is a work of supereroga* 
tion, and it is not strange that the legislature did not, 
when it was introduced, favor its passage. The author 
of the bill wrote, ' The members claim, that such a 
bill is not needed.' The same opinion prevails in New 
Jersey, where a similar bill is said to have been de- 
feated by a vote of three to one. But the sectarians 
of Ohio were resolved on tlie passage of the bill. Mr. 
Geghan, its author, wrote to Mr. Murphy of Cincin- 
nati : — 

" ' We have a prior claim upon the Democratic party. 
The elements composing the Democratic party in Ohio 
to-day are made up of Irish and German Catholics, 
and they have always been loyal and faithful to the 
interests of the party. Hence the party is under obli- 
gations to us ; and we have a perfect right to demand 
of them as a party, inasmuch as they are in control 
of the State legislature and State government, and 
were, both by our means and votes, placed where they 
are to-day, that they should as a party redress our 
grievances.' 

" The organ of the friends of the bill published this 
letter, and, among other things, said, — 

" ' The political party with which nine-tenths of tlie 



226 LIFE OF RUTHERFOED B. HAYES. 

Catholic voters affiliate, on account of past services 
that they will never forget, now controls the State. 
Withdraw the support which Catholics have given to 
it, and it will fail in this city, county, and state, as 
speedily as it has risen to its long-lost position and 
power. That party is now in power. Mr. Geghan's 
bill will test the sincerity of its professions.' 

"That threat was effectual. The bill was passed; 
and the sectarian organ therefore said, — 

" ' The unbroken soUd vote of the Catholic citizens 
of the State will be given to the Democracy at the fall 
election.' 

"In regard to those who voted against the bill, it 
said, ' They have dug their political grave : it will not 
be our fault if they do not fill it. When any of them 
appear again in the political arena, we will put upon 
them a brand that every Catholic citizen will under- 
stand.' No defence of this conduct of the last legisla- 
ture has yet been attempted. The facts are beyond 
dispute. This is the first example of open and sectarian 
interference with legislation in Ohio. If the people 
are wise, they will give it such a rebuke in October, 
that, for many years at least, it will be the last. 

" But it is claimed that the schools are in no danger. 
Now that public attention is aroused to the importance 
of the subject, it is probable, that, in Ohio, they are 
safe. But their safety depends on the rebuke which the 
people shall give to the party which yielded, last spring, 
at Columbus, to the threats of their enemies. It is said 



STATE CAMPAIGN OP 1875. 227 

that no political party ' desires the destruction of the 
schools.' In reply, no political party ' desired ' the 
passage of the Geghan Bill ; but the power which hates 
the schools passed the bill. The sectarian wing of the 
Democratic party rules that party to-day in the great 
commercial metropolis of the nation. It holds the 
balance of power in many of the large cities of the 
country. Without its votes, the Democratic party 
would lose every large city and county in Ohio, and 
every Northern State. In the presidential canvass of 
1864, it was claimed that Gen. McClellan was as good 
a Union man as Abraham Lincoln, and that he was as 
much opposed to the Rebellion. An eminent citizen of 
this State replied, ' I learn from my adversaries. Who 
do the enemies of the Union want elected ? The man 
they are for, I am against.' So I would say to the 
friends of the public schools, ' How do the enemies of 
universal education vote ? ' If the enemies of the free 
schools give their ' unbroken solid vote ' to the Demo- 
cratic ticket, the friends of the schools will make no 
mistake, if they vote the Republican ticket. 

" The Republicans enter upon this important canvass 
with many advantages. Their adversaries are loaded 
down with the record of the last legislature. Demo- 
cratic legislatures have not been fortunate in Ohio. 
Since the present division of parties, twenty years ago, 
no Democratic legislature has ever failed to bring 
defeat to its party. The people of Ohio have never 
been willing to venture upon the experiment of two 



228 LIFE OF KUTHEEPOED B. HAYES. 

Democratic legislatures in succession. The Democratic 
inflation platform offends German Democrats, has 
driven off Liberal Republicans, and is accepted by very 
few old-fashioned Democrats in its true intent and 
meaning. The Republicans are out of power in the 
cities and in the State, and are everywhere taking the 
offensive. If Democrats assail them on account of 
some affair of years ago, or in a distant Southern State, 
or in Washington, Republicans reply by pointing to 
what Democrats are now doing in their own cities, or 
have just done in the last legislature. The materials 
for such report are abundant, and ready at hand. The 
Republicans are embarrassed by no entanghng alliance 
with the sectarian enemies of the public schools, and 
they have yielded to no sectarian demands or dictation 
in public affairs. We rejoice to see indications of an 
active canvass, and a large vote at the election. Such 
a canvass and such a vote in Ohio never yet resulted 
in a Democratic victory. Our motto is, ' Honest money 
for all, and free schools for all.' There should be no 
inflation which will destroy the one, and no sectarian 
influence which will destroy the other." 

Thus did this modest and patriotic man reason with 
his fellow-citizens, and open the way for the return 
of Republican sway. Often his speeches assumed a 
sarcastic and mirthful temper ; and there are passages 
in other speeches which were more eloquent than any 
in the speech we have quoted ; yet his usual manner 



STATE CAMPAIGN OF 1875. 



229 



and practical methods of presenting his thoughts are 
therein fairly displaj^ed. 

Whatever may be the decision of rhetorical critics, 
and whatever may be the opinion of the admirers of 
flowery declamation, there is one merit his speeches 
contained, and that was all that he intended they should 
contain; viz., a power to make Republicans of Demo- 
crats, and secure the success of the principles he advo- 




STATB CAPlTOIi OF OHIO. 



Gated. Such was the effect of his speeches in the 
canvass of 1875. He was elected governor for two 
years, and the Republican party thereby emboldened 
to adopt as a national platform the principles he so 
successfully advocated in Ohio. 

It is profitable, in this connection, to note how the 
" Cincinnati Club " — through such members as Hayes, 
Mathews,^ Force, White, Herron, Stephenson, and Gos- 

1 Judge Mathews's name is very often, we find, spelled with two 
"t's," as follows; viz., Matthews. 



230 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

home — gave utterance to sentiments and prophetic dec- 
larations which afterwards became the corner-stones of 
national parties. Conversation with various members 
of that organization has recalled speeches, discussions, 
and essays upon national questions, and problems in 
political economy, which then were regarded by many 
hearers as ephemeral or absurd, but which have been 
copied and rehearsed unconsciously by many a states- 
man since that day. We see in the foregoing speech, 
and may see still more clearly in the extracts of speech- 
es in the following chapter, how closely Gen. Hayes 
adhered to the principles which he expressed or 
approved in the exercises of that club. He was then 
opposed to slavery ; he was then in favor of equal 
suffrage ; he was then opposed to the states-rights doc- 
trine ; and he was then, as now, the opponent of every 
thing which encouraged ofiSce-holders to steal, or weak- 
ened the patriot's faith in the honor and integrity of his 
nation. He is no convert to his party, no meek 
follower of events ; but long before the struggles he 
felt, and to which he so often refers in his speeches, 
had become realities, he foretold their advent, and, 
earnestly warning his friends, bravely prepared himself 
to meet them. 



J 



CHAPTER XXV. 

EXTRACTS FROM GEN. HAYES'S SPEECHES. 

Reconstruction. — Paying National Debt in Greenbacks. —Issue of 
Bonds. — The History of Parties. — Negro Suffrage. — The Word 
"White." — Equality before the Law. — Administration of State 
Affairs. — Dedication of Fountain. — Dedication of a Soldier's 
Monument, &c. 

In fulfilment of our purpose to give to the reader an 
impartial and comprehensive study of Gen. Hayes's 
character as a statesman, we now give a number of 
extracts from his speeches, having selected them not 
so much with a view to the excellence of each as to 
exhibit the different phases of his thought, and the 
influence of circumstances upon the style and material 
of his addresses. There may be an occasional error in 
a word or phrase as reported by the shorthand writers 
of the time ; but it will be more just to the speaker and 
the pubhc, and more in accord with Gen. Hayes's whole 
life, to take them with these slight errors, if such there 
should be, than to ask him to rewrite them, and incur 
the danger of being charged with having changed them 
to escape just and fair criticism. As these are, to many 
of us, the most important part of his history, we would 

231 



232 LIFE OF BUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

have them in their original phraseology, that we may 
not only see him as he is, but also as he was. 

The first speech from which we quote in this con- 
nection was delivered Aug. 5, 1867, at Lebanon, O., 
and in which he said, — 

" Gen. Jackson was, no doubt, right as to the exist- 
ence of a settled purpose to break up the Union,, and to 
establish a Southern Confederacy, as long ago as 1832. 
But why was there such a purpose? and on what 
ground did it stand? 

" Great political parties, whether sectional or other- 
wise, do not come by accident, nor are they the inven- 
tion of political intrigue. A faction born of a clique 
may have some strength at one or two elections ; but the 
wisest political wire-workers cannot by ' merely taldng 
thought ' create a strong and permanent party. The 
result of the Philadelphia Convention last summer 
probably taught this truth to the authors of that move- 
ment. Great political movements always have some 
adequate cause. 

" Now, on what did the conspirators who plotted the 
destruction of the Union and the establishment of a 
Southern Confederacy rely ? In the first place, they 
taught a false construction of the National Constitution, 
which was miscalled state-rights, the essential part of" 
which was, that ' any State of the Union might secede 
from the Union whenever it liked.' This doctrine was 
the instrument employed to destroy the unity of the 
nation. The fact which gave strength and energy to 



EXTEACTS FEOM GEN. HAYES'S SPEECHES. 233 

those who employed this instrument was, that, in the 
Southern half of the Union, society, business, property, 
religion, and law were all based on the proposition that 
over four millions of our countrymen, capable of civili- 
zation and religion, were, because of their race and 
color, ' so far inferior, that they had no rights which 
the white man was bound to respect.' The practice 
founded upon this denial of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, protected by law and sanctioned by usage, 
was our great national transgression, and was the cause 
of our great national calamity. . . . 

" On the 23d of January, 1861, the Democratic party 
held a state convention at Columbus. Remember 
at that date the air was thick with threats of war 
from the South. The rebels were organizing and drill- 
ing ; arms robbed from the national arsenals were in 
.their hands ; and the question upon all minds was, 
whether the Republic should perish without having a 
single blow struck in her defence, or whether the people 
of the loyal North should rise as one man, prepared to 
wage war until treason, and, if need be, slavery, went 
down together. On this question that convention was 
bound to speak. Silence was impossible. There were 
present war Democrats and peace Democrats, followers 
of Jackson, and followers of Calhoun. There was a 
determined and gallant struggle on the part of the war 
Democrats ; but the superior numbers, or, more proba- 
bly, the superior tactics and strategy, of the peace men, 
triumphed. 



234 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

" The present candidate of the Democratic party for 
governor of Ohio, Judge Thiirman, — a gentleman of 
character and ability, a distinguished lawyer and judge, 
and a politician of long experience, — succeeded in 
passing through the convention this resolution : — 

" ' Resolved^ That the two hundred thousand Demo- 
crats of Ohio send to the people of the United States, 
both North and South, greeting ; and when the people 
of the North shall have fulfilled their duties to the 
Constitution and to the South, then, and not until then, 
will it be proper for them to take into consideration the 
question of the right and propriety of coercion.' 

" In support of this famous resolution. Judge Thur- 
man addressed the convention, and, among other things, 
is reported to have said, — 

" ' A man is deficient in understanding, who thinks 
the cause of disunion is that the South apprehended^ 
any overt act of oppression in Lincoln's administration. 
It is the spirit of the late presidential contest that 
alarms the South. . . . 

" ' It would try the ethics of any man to deny that some 
of the Southern States have no cause for revolution. Then 
you must he sure you are able to coerce before you begin 
the work. The South are a brave people. Tlie Southern 
States camiot be held by force. The blacks wonH fight for 
the invaders. . . . The Hungarians had less cause of 
complaint against Austria than the South had against the 
North: 

" When we reflect on what the rebels had done, and 



I 



EXTRACTS FROM GEN. HAYES'S SPEECHES. 235 

what they were doing when this resolution was passed, 
it seems incredible that some men having a spark of 
patriotism could for one moment have tolerated its 
sentiments. The rebels had already deprived the 
United States of its jurisdiction and property in about 
one-fourth of its inhabited territory, and were rapidly 
extending their insurrection so as to include within 
the rebel lines all the slave States. The lives and 
property of Union citizens in the insurgent States were 
at the mercy of traitors; and the national flag was 
everywhere torn down, and shameful indignities and 
outrages heaped upon all who honored it. 

« This resolution speaks of fulfilling the duties of the 
people of the North to the South. The first and highest 
duty of the people of the North — to themselves, to the 
South, to their country, and to God — was to crush the 
rebellion. All speeches and resolutions against either 
the right or the propriety of coercion merely gave 
encouragement — 'moral aid and comfort,' more im- 
portant than powder and ball — to the enemies of the 
nation. ... 

" Now came the work of reconstruction. The 
leaders of the peace Democracy, who had failed in 
every measure, in every plan, in every opinion, and 
in every prediction relating to the war, were promptly 
on hand, with unblushing cheek were prepared to take 
exclusive charge of the whole business of re-organiza- 
tion and reconstruction. They had a plan all prepared, 
— a plan easily understood, easily executed, and which, 



236 LIFE OF KUTHEEFOED B. HAYES. 

they averred, would be satisfactory to all parties. Their 
plan was iu perfect harmony with the conduct and 
history of its authors and friends during the war. 
They had been in very close sympathy with the men 
engaged in the Rebellion; while their sympathy for 
loyal white people at the South was not strong, and 
they were bitterly hostile to loyal colored people both 
North and South. Their plan was consistent with all 
this. 

" According to it, the rebels were to be treated in 
the same manner as if they remained loyal. All laws, 
State and National, all orders and regulations of the 
military, naval, and other departments of the govern- 
ment, creating disabilities on account of participation 
in the Rebellion, were to be repealed, revoked, or 
abolished. The rebellious States were to be repre- 
sented in Congress by the rebels, without hinderance 
from any test oath. All appointments in the army, in 
the navy, and in the civil service, were to be made from 
men who were rebels, on the same terms as from men 
who were loyal. The people and governments in the 
rebellious States were to be subjected to no other 
interference or control from the military or other 
departments of the General Government than exists in 
the States which remain loyal. Loyal white men and 
loyal colored men were to be protected alone in those 
States by State laws executed by State authorities, as 
if they were in the loyal States. 

" There were to be no amendments to the Constitu- 



EXTRACTS FROM GEN. HAYES'S SPEECHES. 237 

tion, not even an amendment abolishing slavery : in 
short, the Great Rebellion was to be ignored or for- 
gotten, or, in the words of one of their orators, 'to be 
generously forgiven.' The war, whose burdens, cost, 
and carnage they have been so fond of exaggerating, 
suddenly sank into what the Rev. Petroleum V. Nasby 
calls, ' The late unpleasantness,' for which nobody but 
the abolitionists were to blame. Under tliis plan, the 
States could soon re-establish slavery where it had been 
disturbed by the war. Jefferson Davis, Toombs, Slidell, 
and Mason could be. re-elected to their old places in 
the senate of the United States ; Lee could be re-ap- 
pointed in the army ; and Semmes and Maury could be 
restored to the navy. Of course, this plan of the 
peace Democracy was acceptable to the rebels of the 
South ; but the loyal people, who, under the name of 
the Union party, fought successfully through the war 
of the Rebellion, objected to this plan as wrong in 
principle, wrong in its details, and fatally wrong as an 
example for the future. It treats treason as no crime, 
and loyalty as no virtue. It contains no guaranties, 
irrevisable or otherwise, against another rebellion by 
the same parties and on the same grounds. It restores 
to political honor and power in the government of the 
nation men who have spent the best part of their 
lives in plotting the overthrow of that government, 
and who, for more than four years, levied public war 
against the United States. It allows Union men in 
the South, who have risked all, and many of whom 



238 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

have lost all but life, in upholding the Union cause, to 
be excluded from every office, State and National, and, 
in many instances, to be banished from the States they 
so faithfully labored to save. It abandons the four 
millions of colored people to such treatment as the 
ruffian class of the South, educated in the barbarism 
of slavery and the atrocities of the Rebellion, may 
choose to give them. It leaves the obligations of the 
Nation to her creditors, and to the maimed soldiers, 
and to the widows and orphans of the war, to be ful- 
filled by men who hate the cause in which these obliga- 
tions were incurred. It claims to be a plan which 
restores the Union without requiring conditions ; but, 
in conceding to the conquered rebels the repeal of laws 
important to the nation's welfare, it grants conditions 
which they demand, while it denies to the loyal victors 
conditions which they deem of priceless value. . . . 
Enough has been given to show how completely and 
how exactly the reconstruction acts have met the evil 
to be remedied in the South. My friend Mr. Hass- 
aurek, in his admirable speech at Columbus, did not 
estimate too highly the fruits of these labors. Said 
he,— 

" ' And, sir, this remedy at once effected the desired 
cure. The poor contraband is no longer the persecuted 
outlaw, whom incensed rebels miglit kick and kill with 
impunity ; but he at once becomes our colored fellow- 
citizen, in whose well-being liis former master takes the 
liveliest interest. Thus, by bringing the negro under 



EXTRACTS FROM GEN. HAYES'S SPEECHES. 23D 

the Amerioan system, we have completed his emancipa- 
tion. He has ceased to be property. From an outcast, he 
has been transformed into a human being, invested with 
the great national attribute of self-protection ; and the 
re-establishment of peace and order and security, the 
revival of business and trade, and the restoration of 
the Southern States on the basis of loyalty and equal 
justice to all, will be the happy results of this aston- 
ishing metamorphosis, provided the party which had 
inaugurated this policy remains in power to carry it 
out.' 

" The peace Democracy generally throughout the 
North opposed this measure. In Ohio they opposed it 
especially, because it commits the people of the nation 
in favor of manhood suffrage. They tell us, that if it 
is wise and just to intrust the ballot to colored men in 
the District of Columbia, in the Territories, and in the 
rebel States, it is also just and wise that they should 
have it in Ohio, and in the other States of the North. 

" Union men do not question this reasoning. But, if 
it is urged as an objection to the plan of Congress, we 
reply. There are now within the limits of the United 
States about five milhons of colored people : they are 
not aliens or strangers ; they are here, not by the choice 
of themselves or of their ancestors ; they are here by 
the misfortune of their fathers and the crime of ours. 
Their labor, privations, and sufferings, unpaid and un- 
requited, have cleared and redeemed one-third of the 
inhabited territory of the Union. Theu- toil has added 



240 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

to the resources and wealth of the nation untold 
millions. Whether we prefer it or not, they are our 
countrjanen, and will remain so forever. 

" They are more than countrymen : they are citizens. 
Free colored men were citizens of the colonies. The 
Constitution of the United States, formed by our 
fathers, created no disabilities on account of color. By 
the acts of our fathers and of ourselves, they bear 
equally the burdens, and are required to discharge the 
highest duty, of citizens. They are compelled to pay 
taxes and to bear arms. They fought side by side 
with their white countrymen in the great struggle of 
Independence and in the recent war for the Union. 
In the Revolutionary contest, the colored men bore an 
honorable part, from the Boston Massacre, in 1770, to 
the surrender of Cornwallis, in 1781. Bancroft says, 
' Their names may be read on the pension-rolls of the 
country, side by side with those of other soldiers of the 
Revolution.' In the war of 1812 Gen. Jackson issued 
an order complimenting the colored men of his army 
engaged in the defence of New Orleans. I need not 
speak of their number, or of their services, in the war 
of the Rebellion. The nation enrolled and accepted 
them among her defenders, to the number of about two 
hundred thousand ; and in the new regular Army Act, 
passed at the close of the Rebellion by the votes of 
Democrats and Union men alike, in the Senate and in 
the House, and b}^ the assent of the president, regiments 
of colored men, cavalry and infantrj^ formed part of 
the standing army of the Republic. 



EXTRACTS FROM GEN. HAYES's SPEECHES. 241 

" In tlie navy, colored American soldiers have fought 
side by side with white men, from the days of Paul 
Jones to the victory of the ' Kearsarge ' over the rebel 
pirate ' Alabama.' Colored men will in the future, as 
in the past, in all times of national peril, be our fellow- 
soldiers. Taxpaj^ers, countrymen, fellow-citizens, and 
fellow-soldiers, the colored men of America have been 
and will be. It is now too late for the adversaries of 
nationality and human rights to undertake to deprive 
these taxpayers, freemen, citizens, and soldiers of the 
right to vote. 

" Slaves were never voters. It was bad enough that 
our fathers, for the sake of union, were compelled to 
allow masters to reckon three-fifths of their slaves for 
representation, without adding slave-suffrage to the 
other privileges of the slaveholder. The free colored 
men were always voters in many of the colonies, and in 
several of the States, North and South, after independ- 
ence was achieved. They voted for members of the 
Congress which declared independence, and for mem- 
bers of every Congress prior to the adoption of the 
Federal Constitution, for the members of the conven- 
tion which framed the Constitution, for the members 
of many of the State conventions which ratified it, 
and for every president from Washington to Lincoln. 

" Our government has been called the wliite man's 
government. Not so. It is not the government of any 
class, or sect, or nationality, or race. It is a govern- 
ment founded on the consent of the governed ; and JNIr. 



242 LIFE OF EUTHEEFOED B. HAYES. 

Broomall of Pennsylvania, therefore properly calls it 
' the government of the governed.' It is not the 
government of the native-born or of the foreign-Lorn, 
of the rich man or of the poor man, of the white man 
or of the colored man : it is the government of the 
freeman; and when colored men were made citizens, 
soldiers, and freemen by our consent and votes, we 
were estopped from denying to them the right of 
suffrage. . . . 

*' The plain and monstrous inconsistency -and injus- 
tice of excluding one-seventh of our population from 
all participation in a government founded on the con- 
sent of the governed, in this land of free discussion, is 
simply impossible. No such absurdity and Avrong can 
be permanent. Impartial suffrage will carry the day. 
No low prejudice will long be able to induce American 
citizens to deny to a weak people their best means of 
self-protection, for the unmanly reason that they are 
weak. Chief Justice Chase expressed the true senti- 
ment when he said, ' The American nation cannot afford 
to do the smallest injustice to the humblest and feeblest 
of her children.' 

" Much has been said of the antagonism which exists 
between the different races of men ; but difference of 
religion, difference of nationality, difference of language, 
and difference of rank and privileges, are quite as fruit- 
ful causes of antagonism and war as difference of race. 
The bitter strifes between Christians and Jews, between 
Catholics and Protestants, between Englishmen and 



EXTRACTS FROM GEN. IIAYES'S SrEECIIES. 243 

Irishmen, between aristocracy and the masses, are only 
too familiar. Under the partial and unjust laws of the 
nations of the whole world, men of one nationality were 
allowed to oppress those of another. Men of one faith 
had rights which were denied to men of a different faith. 
Men of one rank, or caste, enjoyed special privileges 
which were not granted to men of another. Under 
these systems, peace was impossible, and strife per- 
petual ; but, under just and equal laws in the United 
States, Jews, Protestants, and Catholics, Englishmen 
and Irishmen, the former aristocrat, and the masses of 
the people, dwell and mingle harmoniously together. 
The uniform lesson of history is, that unjust and partial 
laws increase and create antagonism of conduct ; while 
justice and equality are the sure foundation of prosperity 
and peace. 

" Impartial suffrage secures, also, popular education. 
Nothing has given the careful observer of events in the 
South more gratification than the j)rogress which is 
there going on in the establishment of schools. The 
colored people, who as slaves were debarred from 
education, regard the right to learn as one of the high- 
est privileges of fi-eemen. The ballot gives them the 
power to secure that privilege. All parties and all 
public men in the South agree, that, if the colored men 
vote, ample provisions must be made in the re-organiza- 
tion of etery State for free schools. The ignorance of 
the masses, whites as well as blacks, is one of the most 
discouraging features of Southern society. If congres- 



244 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

sional reconstruction succeeds, there will be free schools 
for all. The colored people will see that their children 
attend them. We need indulge in.no fears that the 
white people will be left behind. Impartial suffrage, 
then, means popular intelligence : it means progress, 
it means loyalty, it means harmony between the North 
and South, and between the whites and the colored 
i)eople. . . . 

" Ever since armed rebellion failed, a large party in 
the South have struggled to make participation in 
the Rebellion honorable, and loyalty to the Union dis- 
honorable. The lost cause, with them, is the honored 
cause. In society, in business, and in politics, devotion 
to treason is the test of merit, the passport to prefer- 
ment. They wish to return to the old state of things, — 
an oligarchy of race and the sovereignty of states. 

" To defeat this purpose, to secure the rights of man, 
and to perpetuate a national union, are the objects of 
the congressional plan of reconstruction. That plan 
has the hearty support of the great generals, so far as 
their opinions are known, — of Grant, of Thomas, of 
Sheridan, of Howard, — who led the armies of the Union 
which conquered the Rebellion. The statesmen most 
trusted by Mr. Lincoln, and by the loyal people of the 
country during the war, also support it. The Supreme 
Court of the United States, upon formal application, and 
after solemn argument, refused to interfere with its exe- 
cution. The loyal presses of the country, which did so 
much in the time of need to uphold the patriot cause, 
without exception, are in favor of the plan. 



EXTRACTS FROM GEN. HAYES'S SPEECHES. 245 

" In the South, as we have seen, the lessons of the 
war, and the events occurring since the war, have made 
converts of thousands of the bravest and of the ablest of 
those who opposed the national cause. Gen. Longstreet, 
a soldier second to no living corps commander of the 
rebel army, calls it a ' peace offering,' and advises the 
South, in good faith, to organize under it. Unrepent- 
ant rebels and unconverted peace Democrats opposed it, 
just as they opposed the measures which destroyed 
slavery, and saved the nation. 

" Opposition to whatever the nation approves seems 
to be the policy of the representative men of the peace 
Democracy. Defeat and failure comprise their whole 
political histor}'. In laboring to overthrow reconstruc- 
tion, they are probably destined to further defeat and 
further failure. I know not how it may be in other States ; 
but, if I am not greatly mistaken as to the mind of the 
loyal people of Ohio, they mean to trust power in the 
hands of no man, who, during the awful struggle for 
the nation's life, proved unfaithful to the cause of liberty 
and union. They will continue to exclude from the 
administration of the government those who promi- 
nently opposed the war, until ever}^ question arising out 
of the Rebellion, relating to the integrity of the nation 
and to human rights, shall have been firmly settled on 
the basis of impartial justice. 

" They mean that the State of Ohio in this great 
progress — ' whose leading object is to elevate the con- 
dition of men, to lift artificial weights from all shoul- 



246 LIFE OF EUTHEKFOED B. HAYES. 

ders, to afford all an unfettered start and a fair chance 
in the race of hfe ' — shall tread no step backward. 

" Permeated and sustained by a conviction, that, in 
this contest, the Union party of Ohio is doing battle for 
the right, I enter upon my part of the labors of the 
canvass with undoubting confidence that the goodness 
of the cause will make up for the weakness of its 
advocacy." 

The following reference to the financial question is 
found in a speech delivered by Gen. Hayes at Batavia, 
O., Aug. 20, 1867 : — 

" Mr. Pendleton seems desirous to occupy a position 
about midway between the boundless expansion of 
Vallandigham and the anti-rag doctrine of Judge 
Tliurman. He saj's, ' The five-twenties should be paid 
in greenbacks as they mature, or as fast as can he done, 
zvithout too great derangement of the currency.'' 

" It is enough for my present purpose to say, that 
when Judge Thurman and the peace Democracy, in 
State convention or otherwise, can agree upon the best 
mode of paying the national debt, the Union party will 
be glad of their assistance in the support of any plan by 
which it can be honestly done ' without,' in the words 
of Mr. Pendleton, ' too great derangement of the 
currency.' 

" Judge Ranney and Judge Jewett both comjolain 
that tlie Johnson administration is now engaged in 



EXTEACTS FROM GEN. HAYES'S SPEECHES. 247 

taking up greenbacks by issuing in their stead interest- 
bearing bonds. I heartily concur with them in oppos- 
ing that pohcy. As a member of the house, I voted 
against it a great many times in the Thirty-ninth Con- 
gress ; and I regret that their party friends in that 
Congress did not entertain the same opinion, and vote 
as I did. ' The Cincinnati Enquirer ' of a recent date 
contained this paragraph, — 

" ' While the bonded debt has only been diminished 
a little over four millions of dollars from the 1st of 
June to the 1st of August, the secretary of the treas- 
ury has reduced the circulating medium twenty mil- 
lions of dollars within that time. The aim of the 
secretary is to call in the greenbacks, and every other 
government issue upon which the people are not 
charged interest, while he allows all the interest-bear- 
ing debt to remain. It would not do, he thinks, to 
save the people the immense sums of money they are 
now paying as interest upon the debt.' 

" Now, under what law is Secretary IMcCullough 
doing this ? Judges Jewett and Ranney talk ^s if it 
was the work of the Ujiion party. Not at all. If 
those gentlemen had examined the proceedings of Con- 
gress, as given in the ' Congressional Globe,' they 
would have learned that the law which authorizes this 
to be done is one of the pet measures of the Johnson 
administration ; that it was voted for by every Demo- 
cratic member of Congress in both houses who voted 
on the question; that a majority of the Union members 



248 LITE OF RUTHERFORD B, HAYES. 

of the House voted against it ; and that the bill would 
have failed, if a majority of the Democratic members 
had opposed it. The votes will be found in the Pro- 
ceedings of the sixteenth and twenty-third days of 
March, 1866. The Democratic representatives from 
Ohio, Messrs. Finck and Le Blond, voted for the bill ; 
and all the Union members of the House from Ohio, 
except three, voted against it. Senators Sherman and 
Wade both voted for it. The President aj)proved the 
bill. The policy which these gentlemen condemn is 
therefore proved by the record not to be the policy of 
the Union party. If any party is responsible for it as 
a party measure, it is the Johnson party, to which the 
Democracy belonged in 1866." 

In his address at Sidney, O., Sept. 4, 1867, in reply 
to Judge Thurman, Gen. Hayes said, — 

" Judge Ranney and Judge Jewett are telling the 
people that it is the policy of Sec. McCullough to take 
up the greenback currency, and issue in its stead interest- 
bearing bonds not taxable, principal and interest both 
pa^^able in goin at the option of the secretary. It is 
true. That was and is the policy of Sec. McCullough. 
But they go further, and say they are authorized to say 
that this is the policy of the Union party. I take issue 
with them on that statement. They offer no proof that 
it is true, except the fact that it is the policy of the 
Johnson administration ; and I submit to an intelli- 
gent audience, that the fact that Johnson and his 
administration are in favor of a measure is no evidence 



EXTRACTS FEOM GEN. HAYES's SPEECHES. 249 

whatever that the Union party supports it. It is 
not for me to prove the negative ; but I am pve- 
pared, nevertheless, to prove it. The very measure 
which was intended to carry out this policy of Sec. 
McCullough, to enable him to take up the green- 
back currency with interest-bearing bonds, was intro- 
duced in Congress in March, 1866. I have here the 
votes upon that question ; and I say to you that the 
Democratic party in both Houses, all the members of 
the Democratic party in both Houses, voted for Sec. Mc- 
CuUough's plan ; and that Mr. Julian, Judge Schofield, 
Mr. Lawrence (all of whom I see here), and myself, a 
majority of the Republican members of Congress, voted 
against the scheme ; and it became a law, because a 
minority of the Union party, with the unanimous vote 
of the Democratic party, supported it, and because, 
when it was submitted to Andrew Johnson, instead 
of vetoing it, as he did all Union party measures, he 
wrote his name, on the 12th of April, at the bottom of 
it, ' Approved : Andrew Johnson.' Now, it is under 
that measure, and by virtue of that law, voted for by 
Mr. Fick and Mr. Le Blond of the Democratic party 
of Ohio, in the House of Representatives, — it is by 
virtue of that law that to-day Sec. jNIcCullough is issu- 
ing interest-bearing bonds, not taxable, to take up the 
greenback currenc}^ of this country. I think, then, I 
am authorized in saying that these gentlemen are mis- 
taken, when they accuse the Union party of being in 
favor of taking up the greenback ciu-rency, and putting 



250 LIFE OF KUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

in the place of it interest-bearing and untaxable 
bonds." 

Upon tlie question of reconstruction, Gen. Hayes 
said, — 

" Gen. Grant, in one paragraph of his letter to the 
president, said to him, — 

" ' Gen. Sheridan has performed the civil duties faith- 
fully and intelligently. His removal will only be 
regarded as an effort to defeat the laws of Congress. 
It will be interpreted by the unreconstructed element 
in the South, — those who did all they could to break up 
this government by arms, and now wish to be the only 
element consulted as to the method of restoring order 
— as a triumph. It will embolden them to renewed 
opposition to the will of the loyal masses, believing 
that they have the Executive approbation.' 

" This presents exactly the question before the peo- 
ple. We want the loyal people of the country, the 
victors in the great struggle we have passed through, 
to do the work. We want reconstruction upon such 
principles, and by means of such measures, that the 
causes which made reconstruction necessary shall not 
exist in the reconstructed Union. We want that foolish 
notion of state-rights, which teaches that the state is 
superior to the nation, that there is a state sovereignty 
which commands the allegiance of every citizen, higher 
than the sovereignty of the nation, — we want that 
notion left out of the reconstructed Union. We want 
it understood, that whatever doubts may have existed 



EXTRACTS FROM GEN. HAYES'S SPEECHES. 251 

prior to the war, as to the relation of the State to the 
National Government, that now the National Govern- 
ment is supreme, any thing in the constitution or laws 
of any State to the contrary notwithstanding. Again : 
as one of the causes of the Rebellion, we want slavery 
left out, not merely in name, but in fact, forever. We 
want the last vestige, the last of that institution, rooted 
out of the laws and institutions of every State. We 
want that in the South there shall be no more suppres- 
sion of free discussion. I notice, that, in the long speech 
of my friend Judge Thurman, he says, that for nearly 
fifty years, throughout the length and breadth of the 
land, freedom of speech and of the press was never inter- 
fered with, either by the government or the people. For 
more than thirty years, fellow-citizens, there has been 
no such thing as free discussion in the South. Those 
moderate speeches of Abraham Lincoln on the subject 
of slavery — not one of them could have been deliv- 
ered, without endangering his life, south of INIason and 
Dixon's Line. We want in the reconstructed Union 
that there shall be the same freedom of the press and 
freedom of speech in the States of the South that there 
always has been in the States of the North. Again : we 
want a reconstructed Union upon such principles, that 
the men of the South, who, during the war, were loyal, 
and true to the President, shall be protected in life, 
liberty, and property, and in the exercise of their 
political rights. It becomes the solemn duty of the 
loyal victors to see that the men, who, in the midst of 



252 LITE or KUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

difficulties, discouragements, and dangers in the South, 
were true, are protected in these rights ; and in order 
that our reconstruction shall be carried out faithfully, 
and accomplish these objects, we further want that the 
work shall be in the hands of the right men. Andrew 
Johnson, in the days when he was loyal, said the work 
of reconsti\iction ought to be placed absolutely in the 
hands of the loyal men of the State ; that rebels, and 
particularly leading rebels, ought not to participate in 
that work ; that, while that work is going on, they must 
take back-seats. We want that understood in our 
work of reconstruction. How important it is to have 
the right men in charge of this work appears upon the 
most cursory examination of what has already been 
done. Pres. Lincoln administered the same laws sub- 
stantially, was sworn to support the same Constitution, 
with Andrew Johnson ; yet how different the recon- 
struction as carried out by these two men ! Lincoln's 
reconstruction in all the States which he undertook to 
re-organize gave to those States loyal governors, loyal 
legislators, judges, and officers of the law. Andrew 
Johnson, administering the same Constitution and the 
same laws, reconstructs a number of States ; and, in all 
of them, leading rebels are elected governors, leading 
rebels are members, of the legislature, and leading rebels 
are sent to Congress. It makes, then, the greatest 
difference to the people of this country who it is that 
does the work." 

In the same speech Gen. Hayes said, — 



EXTRACTS FROM GEN. HAYES'S SPEECHES. 253 

"Judge Thurman says that Gen. Hayes, in liis speech, 
has a great many slips cut from the newspapers, and 
that he must have had some sewing-society of old ladies 
to cut out the slips for him. I don't know how he 
found that out. I never told him ; and you know the 
ladies never tell secrets that are confided to them. I 
hold in my hand a speech of Judge Thurman, from 
which I have read extracts ; and I find that he has in 
it slips cut from more than twenty different prints, 
sermons, newspapers, old speeches, and pamphlets, to 
show how, in the war of 1812, certain Federalists 
uttered unpatriotic sentiments. I presume he must 
have acquired his slips on that day in the way he says 
I acquired mine now. 

" Now, my friends, I propose to hold Judge Thurman 
to no severe rule of accountability for his conduct dur- 
ing the war. I merely ask that it be judged by his 
own rule : ' Your country is engaged in war ; and it is 
the duty of every citizen to say nothing, and do nothing, 
which shall depress the spirits of his own countrymen : 
nothing shall encourage the enemies of his country, or 
give them moral aid or comfort.' That is the rule. 
Now, Judge Thurman, hoAV does your conduct square 
with it? I do not propose to begin at the beginning of 
the war, or even just before the war, to cite the record 
of Judge Thurman. I am willing to say, that perhaps 
men might have been mistaken at that time. They 
might have supposed, in the beginning, a conciliatory 
policy, or non-coercive policy, would, in some way, avoid 



254 LITE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

the threatened struggle ; but I ask you to approach the 
period when the war was going on, when armies to the 
number of hundreds of thousands of men were ready on 
one side and the other, and when the whole world knew 
what was the nature of the great struggle going on in 
America. Taking the beginning of 18G3, how stands 
the conflict? Wo had pressed the Rebellion out of 
Kentucky, and through Tennessee. Grant stands before 
Vicksburg, held at bay by the army of Pemberton. 
Rosecrans, after the capture of Nashville, has pressed 
forward to Murfreesborough, but is still held out of 
East Tennessee by the army of Bragg. 

" The Army of the Potomac and the army of Lee in 
Virginia are balanced, the one against the other. The 
whole world knows that that exhausting struggle can- 
not last long without deciding in favor of one side or 
the other. That the year 1863 is big with the fate of 
union and of liberty every intelligent man in the world 
knows ; that on one side it is a struggle for nationality 
and human rights. There is not in all Europe a petty 
despot who lives by grinding the masses of the people, 
who does not know that Lincoln and the Union army 
are his enemies. There is not a friend of freedom in all 
Europe, who does not know that Lincoln and the loyal 
army are fighting in the cause of free government for 
all the world. Now, in that contest, where are you, 
Judge Thurman ? It is a time when we need men and 
money, when we need to have our people inspired with 
hope and confidence. Your sons and brothers are in 



EXTRACTS FROM GEN. HAYES's SPEECHES. 255 

the field. Their success depends upon your conduct 
at home. Tlie men who are to advise you what to do 
have upon tliem a dreadful responsibility to give you 
wise and patriotic advice. Judge Thurman, in the 
speech I am quoting from, says, — 

" ' But now, my friends, I shall not deal with obscure 
newspapers or obscure men. What a private citizen 
like Allan G. Thurman may have said in 1861 is a 
matter of indifference.' 

" Ah, no, Judge Thurman ! the Union party does not 
propose to allow your record to go without investiga- 
tion, because you are a private citizen. I know you 
held no official position under the government at the 
time I speak of; but, sir, you had for years been a 
leading, able, and influential man in the great party 
which had often carried your State. You were acting 
under grave responsibilities. jMore than that, during 
that year 18G3, you were more than a private citizen. 
You were one of the delegates to the state convention 
of that year. You were one of the committee that 
formed your party platform in that convention. You 
were one of the central committee that carried on the 
canvass in the absence of your standard-bearers; and 
3-0U were one of the orators of the part3^ No, sir, you 
were not a private citizen in 1863. You were one of 
the leading, and one of the ablest, men in your party 
in that year, speaking through the months of July, 
August, September, and October in behalf of the 
candidate of the peace party. 



256 LIFE OF EUTHERFOED B. HAYES. 

" Well, sir, in the beginning of that eventful year, 
there arises in Congress the ablest member of the 
peace party to advise Congress and to advise the 
people ; and what does he say ? — 

" ' You have not conquered the South : you never 
will. It is not in the nature of things possible, espe- 
cially under your auspices. Money you have expended 
without limit ; blood you have poured out like water.' 

" Now mark the taunt, the words of discouragement 
that were sent to the people and to the army of the 
Union : — 

"■ ' Defeat, debt, taxation, sepulchres : these are your 
trophies. Can you get men to enlist now at any 
price ? ' 

"Listen again to the words that were sent to the 
arm}^ and to the loyal people : — 

'"Ah, sir, it is easier to die at home.' 

"We knew that, Judge Thurman, better than Mr. 
Vallandigham knew it. We had seen our comrades 
falling and dying alone on the mountain-sides and in 
the swamp, — dying in the prison-pens of the Confed- 
eracy, and in the crowded hospitals North and South. 
Yet he had the face to stand up in Congress, and say 
to the people and the world, ' Ah, sir, it is easier to 
die at home.' Judge Thurman, where are you at this 
time ? He goes to Columbus, to the State conventions 
on the lltli of June of that year, in all the capacities 
in which I have named him, — as a delegate, as com- 
mittee-man, and as an orator ; and he spends that whole 



EXTKACTS FROM GEN. HAYES'S SPEECHES. 257 

summer in advocating the election of the man who 
taunted us with the words, 'Defeat, death, taxation, 
sepulchres : these are your trophies.' 

" But wisdom was not learned, even at the close of 
1863, by this peace party. Things were greatly 
changed in the estimation of every loyal man. We 
had now not merely got possession of the Mississippi 
River, we had not merely driven the army of Lee out 
of Pennsylvania, never again to return ; but the battle 
of Mission Ridge and the battle of Knoxville had 
been fought. That important strategic region, East 
Tennessee, was now within our lines. From that abode 
of loyalty, the mountain region of East Tennessee, we 
could pierce to the very heart of the Southern Con- 
federacy. We were now in possession of the interior 
lines, giving us an immense advantage, and we were 
in a condition to march south-east to Atlanta, and 
north-east to Richmond ; yet, with this changed state 
of affairs, where is my friend Judge Thurman ? Advis- 
ing the people? What is he advising them to do ? He 
says Allan G. Thurman was a private citizen. Not so. 
He held no official position, I know, under the govern- 
ment. Fortunately for the people of this country, they 
were not giving official positions in Ohio to men of his 
opinions and sentiments at that time. 

" But he was made delegate at large from the State 
of Ohio to the convention to meet at Chicago, to nomi- 
nate a president, and form a platform on which that 
nominee should stand. Mr. Vallandigham was a dis- 



258 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

trict delegate, and one of the committee to form a plat- 
form ; and he drew the most important resolution. The 
principal plank of that platform is of his construction. 
You are perfectly familiar with it. It merely told the 
people that the war had been for four years a failure, 
and advised them to prepare to negotiate with this 
confederate nation on our southern borders. Well, 
when this advice was given to the nation, we were still 
in the midst of the war, and were prosecuting it with 
every prospect of success. What had been accom- 
plished m 1863 enabled us with great advantage to 
press upon the Rebellion. I remember well when I 
first read that resolution, declaring the war a four- 
years' failure. It came to the army in which I was 
serving, on the same day that the news came to us that 
Sherman had captured Atlanta. We heard of both 
together. ' The war a four-years' failure,' said the 
Chicago Convention. I remember how, that evening, 
our pickets shouted the good news to the pickets of the 
enemy. What -good news? — news that a convention, 
representing nearly one-half of the people of the 
North, had concluded that the war was a failure ? No 
such news was shouted from our picket-line. The 
good news that was shouted was, that Sherman had 
captured Atlanta. . . . 

" It is not worth while to consider, or undertake to 
predict, when we shall cease to talk of the records of 
those men. It does seem to me that it will, for many 
years to come, be the voice of the Union people of the 



EXTRACTS FROM GEN. HAYES's SPEECHES. 259 

State, that for a man whom as a leader, as a man having 
control in political affairs, — that for such a man, who 
has opposed the interests of his country during the 
war, ' the post of honor is the private station.' When 
shall we stop talking about it ? When ought we to 
stop talking about that record, when leading men come 
before the people ? Certainly not until every question 
arising out of the Rebellion, and every question which 
is akin to the questions which made the Eebellion, is 
settled. Perhaps these men will be remembered long 
after these questions are settled : perhaps their conduct 
will long be remembered. What was the result of this 
advice to the people? It prolonged the war: it made it 
impossible to get recruits : it made it necessary that we 
should have drafts. They opposed the drafts ; and tliat 
made rioting, which required that troops should be 
called from all the armies in the field to preserve the 
peace at home. From forty to a hundred thousand 
men in the different States of this Union were kept 
within the loyal States, to preserve the peace at home. 
And now, when they talk to you about the debt, and 
about the burden of taxation, remember how it hap- 
pened that the war was so prolonged, that it was so 
extensive, and that the debt grew to such large pro- 
portions. 

" There are other things, too, to be remembered. I 
recollect, that, at the close of the last session of Con- 
gress, I went over to Arlington, the estate formerly of 
Robert E. Lee, and I saw there the great national ceme- 



260 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

tery into wliich that beautiful place had been converted. 
I saw the graves of eighteen thousand Union soldiers, 
marked with white headboards, denoting the name of 
each occupant, and his regiment and company. Passing 
over those broad acres covered with the graves of the 
loyal men who had died in defence of their country, I 
came upon that wliich was even more touching than 
these eighteen thousand headboards. I found a large 
granite with this inscription upon it : — 

" ' Beneath this stone repose the remains of two thou- 
sand one hundred and eleven unknown soldiers, gathered 
after the war from the field of Bull Run and the route 
to the Rappahanock. Their remains could not be 
identified ; but their names and deaths are recorded in 
the archives of their country, and its grateful citizens 
honor them as of the noble army of martyrs. May 
they rest in peace ! September, 1866.' 

" I say to these men who were instrumental and 
prominent in prolonging the war by opposing it, that, 
when honeyed words and soft phrases can erase from 
the enduring granite inscriptions like these, the Ameri- 
can people may forget their conduct ; but I believe 
they will not do so until some such miracle is accom- 
plished." 

In regard to negro suffrage he said, — 

" It gives the right of suffrage to all the negroes of 
Ohio. Mark the phrase. I have not said impartial 



EXTRACTS FEOM GEN. HAYES'S SPEECHES. 261 

suffrage or manhood suffrage. I wish to be understood. 
It gives the suffrage to the negroes of Ohio upon the 
same terms that it is given to white men. The reason 
I am in favor of that is, because it is right. 

" Let me have the ears of my Democratic friends on 
that question a moment. If democracy has any mean- 
ing now that is good, any favorable meaning, it is that 
democracy is a government of the people, by the people, 
and for the people. It is a government in which every 
man who has to obey the laws has a part in making the 
laws, unless disqualified by crime. Then the proposi- 
tion I am for is a democratic proposition. Again : it is 
according to the principle upon which good men have 
always desired to see our institutions placed ; viz., that 
all men are entitled to equal rights before the law. 
They are not equal in any other respect. Nobody 
claims that they are. But we propose to give to each 
man the same rights which you want for yourselves. 
It is, in short, obeying the rule of the great Teacher, 
'Do unto others as ye would that others should do 
unto you.' Abraham Lincoln said, ' No man is good 
enough to govern another without that other man's 
consent.' Is not that true ? Good as you think you 
are, are you good enough absolutely to govern another 
man without that other man's consent ? If you really 
think so, just change shoes with that other man, and see 
if you are willing to be governed yourself, without your 
consent, by somebody else. The Declaration of Inde- 
pendence says governments derive their just powders 



262 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

from the consent of the governed. Now, don't you see 
there is no way by which one man can give his consent 
to be governed by another man in a republican govern- 
ment, except by the ballot ? There is no way provided 
by which you can consent to give powers to a govern- 
ment, except by the ballot. Therefore every man 
governed under our system is entitled to the ballot. . . . 
" I commend to you Union men, who are a little 
weak on this question, or perhaps I should say a little 
strong, the example of the Union men of the country 
during the war. Abraliam Lincoln thought, in 1862, it 
was wise to proclaim freedom to the slaves. Many 
good Union men thought it Avas unwise, thought Mr. 
Lincoln was going too far or too fast ; but the sequel 
justified the wisdom of Abraham Lincoln. Again : he 
thought it was wise that colored men should be placed 
in our armies. There were good soldiers, and good 
Union men, who thought it was unwise ; they feared 
that Mr. Lincoln was going too fast or too far : but 
events justified it. Now everybody agrees, that, in both 
cases, Abraham Lincoln was right. Now, the example 
I commend to our Union friends who are doubting 
on this great question is the example of those Union 
men during the war who doubted the wisdom of these 
other measures. Greatly as they were opposed to the 
proclamation of Abraham Lincoln, strongly as they 
were opposed to the enlistment of colored soldiers, I 
say to you I never heard of one good Union man, 
in the army or out of it, who left his party because 



EXTKACTS FROM GEN. HAYES'S SPEECHES. 263 

of that difference with Mr. Lincohi. I commend that 
example to the Union men who now doubt about 
colored suffrage. The truth is, that every step made 
in advance toward the standard of the riglit has, in the 
event, always proved a safe and wise step. Every step 
toward the right has proved a step toward the expe- 
dient : in short, that in politics, in morals, in puljlic 
and private life, the right is always expedient." 

In his speech dehvered in Cincinnati, Oct. 5, 1867, 
he gave some attention to the local division in the 
Repubhcan party in the Second Congressional District. 
He said, — 

" I do not want to be misunderstood in regard to this 
subject. I want to deal with entire fairness and candor 
with my Union friends, and to give them my opinions 

fully and fairly. As to this contest between Mr. C 

and Mr. S for Congress, I have not the slightest 

personal feeling in regard to it. I j^ropose to say 
nothing that can be regarded as of a personal nature. 
I merely wish to call your attention to the state of 
the case as it will appear to the voters on the morn- 
ing of next Tuesday. I say nothing of the primary 
meetings ; I say nothing of the convention ; I say noth- 
ing of the personal grievances ; I say nothing of the 
wrongs to be redressed, admit that to be this way or 
that way : I appeal to perfectly well known facts 
which nobody disputes. What are they? INIr. S. 



264 LIFE OF BUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

is tlie candidate of the Union organization, sustained 
by the great body of the Union people, and I think 
generally by the Union press. Mr. C, his adversary, 
derives his main support from tlie organization of the 
Democratic party of the district. He is mainly sup- 
ported by the leading hostile press, ' The Cincinnati 
Enquirer.' The main body of voters who will vote 
for him are of that party. Now, my friends, consider 
this. I don't know what facts have been presented to 
the leaders of the Democratic party ; I don't know 
what argument has been made to them ; I do not 
know that any pledge, or any argument, has been pre- 
sented: but I see the fact that these shrewd leaders 
have concluded it is for the benefit of their party, and 
the injury of ours, to vote for Mr. C. That is one fact, 
nay, more : they see it is more to their advantage to 
elect Mr. C. than it is to vote for a straight-out Demo- 
crat. Now, Mr. C. is trying to get the votes of his 
Union friends in this district. I am saying not one 
word against him ; but this is true, that either the 
great body of his supporters, the Democrats, or the 
Union men who vote for him, one or the other, are to 
be deceived : that is plain. Now, my friends, I wish 
to suggest this to you. One of the ablest men of this 
city said in 1864, ' I always learn from my adversa- 
ries. Lincoln is for the war ; and McClellan says he is 
for the war. Now, which shall we go for? I say to 
you, fellow-citizens, inquire who Jeff. Davis wants 
elected, and the patriot can then tell whom he does 
not want elected.' 



EXTRACTS FROM GEN. HAYES'S SPEECHES. 265 

" Now, when you see the ' Cincinnati Enquirer,' and 
Mv. Vallandigham, and Andrew Johnson, all in favor 
of a man, be sure it is not for the interest of the Union 
party to support that man. 

" Fellow-citizens, I do not wish to offend anybody, — 
I want all their votes, — but I must tell the truth, and 
be honest with these people, or I do not deserve their 
votes. Now, on the night of next Tuesday there is to 
be a victory. Somebody is to have a victory. I ask of 
my Union friends. Do you want to see the of&ce of ' The 
Cincinnati Enquirer ' illuminated for a victory ? If you 
do, you know whom j^ou can vote for. 

" If you want Mr. Vallandigham, when he hears the 
news from the Second District, to clap his hands, and 
throw up his hat, you know how to vote to give him 
that occasion for rejoicing. If you want, that when the 
news of the election in this district reaches the White 
House, and Andrew Johnson hears it, there shall be a 
revel and a jubilee, — not exactly a cold-water jubilee 
either, — you know how to vote to bring that result 
about. 

" My friends, whatever grievances there are, see to 
it that you do not give a victory to the men, who, 
during this great struggle, were against us ; who during 
the war, like Vallandigham and ' The Enquirer,' were 
fighting us at every step. * 

" Make no such mistakes as that. Make no mistakes 
which shall make glad the heart of the traitor who fills 
the White House. The truth is, that, in the presence 



266 LIFE OP RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

of the great issue that is now before the country, every 
man is under a solemn duty to see, if possible, that he 
makes no mistake. Andrew Johnson is prepared, if he 
believes the country sustains him, to make war upon 
the loyal Congress. On the other hand, if he thinks 
the country will not sustain him, we have confidence 
that he lacks those qualities which will enable him to 
make war where there is no prospect of success. It 
becomes the duty, then, of every Union man to see that 
he introduces no new issue into the Union party ; that 
he does nothing to distract it ; that he does nothing to 
create discord, but every thin_g to strengthen and unite 
the party upon which depends the safety, the interest, 
and the glory of the countr3^ "With our duty performed 
in this regard, no consequence can harm us." 

In his speech before the Ohio State Republican Con- 
vention (June 23, 1869), accepting the nomination for 
governor, Hayes mentioned the Democratic State 
legislature of the previous year, and went on to say, 
that " the last legislature afforded examples of many 
of the worst evils to which legislative bodies are liable, 
— long sessions, excessive legislation, unnecessary ex- 
penditures, and recklessness in authorizing local debts 
and local taxes. These evils 'have increased, are 
increasing, and ought to be diminished.' Let there be 
reform as to all of them. Especially let the people of 
aU parties insist that the parent evil — long legislative 
sessions — shall be reformed altofjether. Let the bad 



EXTRACTS FROM GEN. IIAYES'S SPEECHES. 267 

precedent of long sessions set by the last legislature be 
condemned, and the practice of short sessions estab- 
lished. With the average rate of taxation in the cities 
and large towns of the State nearly three per cent, 
legitimate business and industry cannot continue to 
thrive, if the rate of taxation continues to increase. 
With the rates of interest for public debts ranging from 
seven to seven and three-tenths per cent, the reckless 
increase of such debts must stop, or it will seriously affect 
the prosperity of the State. These are subjects which 
deserve, and Avhich I trust will receive, the profound 
attention of the people in tlie pending canvass. 

" It is said that one of the ablest Democratic members 
of the last legislature declared, at its close, that 
' enough had been done to keep the Democratic party 
out of power in Ohio for twenty years.' Let the 
Republican press and Repubhcan speakers see to it that 
the history of the acts of that body be spread fully 
before the people, and I entertain no doubt but that the 
declaration will be substantially made good. 

" It is probable that the discussions of the present 
canvass will turn more upon State legislation, and less 
upon national affairs, than those of any year since 1861. 
Neither senators nor representatives in Congress are to 
be chosen. But it is an important State election, and 
will be regarded as having a bearing upon national 
politics. The Republicans of Ohio heartily approve of 
the principles of Gen. Grant's Inaugural Message, and 
are gratified by the manner in which he is dealing with 



268 LIFE OF EUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

the leading questions of the first three months of his 
administration. . . . 

" Again thanking you for the honor you have done 
me, I repeat, in conclusion, Avhat I said two years ago : 
The people represented in this convention mean that 
the State of Ohio — in the great progress ' whose leading 
object is to elevate the condition of men, to lift artifi- 
cial weights from all shoulders, to clear the paths of 
laudable pursuits for all, and to afford all an unfettered 
start and a fair chance in the race of life ' — shall tread 
no more steps backward. I shall enter upon my part 
of the labors of the canvass, believing that the Union 
Republican party is battling for the right, and with 
undoubting confidence that the goodness of the cause 
will supply the weakness of its advocates, and com- 
mand in the result that triumphant success which it 
deserves." 

Another speech made by Gen. Hayes (Oct. 10, 
1869), at Mozart Hall, Cincinnati, contained the follow- 
ing : — 

" Now, my friends, let us look at this matter of re- 
construction, not to argue it, but to see what has been 
accomplished, and what will be the meaning of an 
election in Ohio, that will result in victory for Mr. 
Pendleton. I am not here to say to this audience that 
the people of the South are just as we would wish 
them in all respects. A people whose education com- 



EXTRACTS FROM GEN. HAYES's SPEECHES. 269 

menced in the barbarism of slavery, and was completed 
in the atrocities of the Rebellion, cannot be expected, 
in a few years, to be like the people of Ohio, or Penn- 
sylvania, or Indiana, or that they will regard the rights 
of citizens in all respects. Yet taking the essential 
rights of citizens, and examining what is going on in 
the South, Ave shall discover that there is a freedom of 
speech, a free press, and the enjoyment of the right to 
assemble, and discuss public questions, a free ballot, 
and free labor, to an extent never known nor enjoj^ed 
in the South before. Never before were there so many 
children in the public schools as to-day. Take the 
matter of labor : the crops of the South, the cotton, the 
sugar, the tobacco, and the corn, raised this year, are 
more valuable than any crops ever raised before in 
these States. Do not misunderstand me. I do not say 
more bales of cotton, or bushels of corn, but that, at 
present prices, the crops at the South are more valua- 
ble than ever before. Never before were the times in 
the South so prosperous, in many respects, as to-day. 

" Now, let the result of this election say to the worst 
elements of those States, to the ultra men, that there 
is a re-action in Ohio against reconstruction, that we 
are prepared to change the course we have taken, to 
open it all up anew, and return to the unsettled condi- 
tion of things that prevailed under the administration 
of Andrew Johnson ; and what are we then to have ? 
Years more of the lawlessness, discord, and strife that 
we had under Andrew Johnson. What interest of ours 



270 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

is to be promoted by tliat ? "We wish the condition of 
the Southern people to be one of prosperity, that they 
may bear their share of the taxes in order to carry on 
the government, and pay the national debt. 

" The position of Mr. Pendleton is in favor of unset- 
tling all that has been settled ; against reconstruction, 
and opening it all up again as -unconstitutional and 
void. Last year, as you know, we carried the election 
largely on the watchword furnished us by Grant ; and 
we stand on the same ground to-day, and say, as to all 
these troubles, ' Let us have peace.' 

" The significance of an adverse result in Ohio is 
disorder, discord, a renewal of strife in the South. It 
is our interest that the condition of the South should 
be one of universal prosperity and universal- peace. 

" Another right of national importance arises in con- 
sidering the peculiar position of Mr. Pendleton in ref- 
erence to the repudiation of the debt. My friends, 
there is not a repudiator, from Pomeroy's ' Democrat ' to 
the Columbus ' Crisis ' and the Cincinnati ' Commoner,' 
that is not the earnest supporter of Pendleton's election. 
Everywhere the success of Pendleton will be held by 
the rcpudiators of the country as their victory. What 
does the threat of repudiation cost this country ? Dur- 
ing the war, when it was doubtful whether we were 
able to be a nation or not, we borrowed of all the 
world money at six per cent. 

" Now, when the ability of the nation to pay its debt 
is beyond all doubt, and the only question that can be 



EXTRACTS FROM GEN. HAYES'S SPEECHES. 271 

raised is as to its disposition to pay it, what ought to be 
the rate of interest. When Enghand and France and 
the better nations of the workl, including our own 
State, obtain loans at three and a half to four per 
cent, nothing is more certain than that the United 
States could negotiate loans for renewing the whole 
amount of our debt at four per cent, but for the appre- 
hension that the debt may not be honestly paid. The 
fear of repudiation costs the difference in interest 
between four and six per cent ; and that is forty 
millions a year on our whole debt." 

In his Zanesville speech (Aug. 24, 18G9), Gen. Hayes 
made use of these words : — 

" Now, the important question presented is, whether 
it is safe and wise to trust these amendments, for in- 
terpretation, construction and execution, to the party 
which, from first to last, has fiercely opposed them. The 
safe rule is, if you want a law faithfully and fairly 
administered, intrust power only to its friends : it will 
rarely have a fair trial at the hands of its enemies. 
These amendments are no exception to this rule. 

" What the country most needs, and what good citi- 
zens most desire, in regard to these great measures, is 
peace, repose. They wish to be able to rest confidently 
in the belief that they are to be enforced and obeyed. 
They do not want them overthrown by revolutionary 
violence, or defeated by fraud. They do not wish them 



272 ■ LIFE OP RUTHEPvFOED B. HAYES. 

repealed by constitutional amendments, abrogated by 
judicial construction, nullified by unfriendly legislation 
(state or national), or left a dead letter by non-action 
on the part of law-makers, or executive officers. Has 
the time come when the country can afford to trust the 
Democratic party on these questions? " 

In a political speech made at Glendale, O., Sept. 4, 
1872, Gen. Hayes made the following strong points : — 

" Fellow-citizens, my purpose in addressing you this 
evening is to spread before the people of the Second 
District my views on the questions of national policy 
which now engage the public attention. 

" In the present condition of the country, two things 
are of vital importance, — peace and a sound financial 
policy. We want peace, honorable peace, with all 
nations, — peace Avith the Indians, and peace between 
all the citizens of all the States. We want a financial 
policy so honest, that there can be no stain on the 
national honor, and no taint on the national credit ; so 
stable, that labor and capital, and legitimate business 
of every sort, can confidently count upon what it will 
be next week, the next month, and the next year. 
We want the burdens of taxation so justly distributed, 
that they will bear equally upon all classes of citizens 
in proportion to their ability to sustain them. 

" We want our currency gradually to appreciate, 
until, without financial shock, or any sudden shrinkage 



EXTRACTS FROM GEN. HAYES's SPEECHES. 273 

of values, but in the natural course of trade, it shall 
reach the uniform and permanent value of gold. With 
lasting peace assured, and a sound financial condition 
established, the United States and all her citizens may 
reasonably expect to enjoy a measure of prosperity 
without a parallel in tlie world's history. 

" When the debates of the last presidential election 
were in progress, four years ago, there were troubles 
with other nations threatening the public peace ; and, 
in particular, there was a most difficult, irritating, and 
dangerous controversy with Great Britain, which it 
seemed almost impossible peaceably to settle. Now 
we are at peace with all the nations ; the American 
Government is everywhere abroad held in the highest 
honor ; and the example of submitting national disputes 
to the decision of a court of arbitration has been set, 
which is of incalculable value to the world. 

" Four years ago, frequent outbreaks of savage 
hostilities along a frontier of more than two thousand 
miles disturbed the country with the apprehension of 
another long, expensive, and fruitless war against the 
Indians. During the last three years and a half, eighty 
thousand Indians have been gathered upon reserva- 
tions, where, by their own labor, they are self-support- 
ing. About one hundred and thirteen thousand others 
have been collected at the agencies, where, — under 
instruction by, perhaps, fifty agents, selected by the 
religious denominations of the country, aided by black- 
smiths, carpenters, and farmers hired by government, 



274 LIFE OF KUTHEEFOED B. HAYES. 

— they are prepared to live peaceably on reservations. 

Only about fifty thousand wild and hostile Indians 
remain. The policy of the government is to gather them 
also, as rapidly as possible, upon reservations, and to 
comj)el them, by force if necessary, to abandon savage 
life. This policy has met with such a success, that judi- 
cious men are confident that a solution of the Indian 
question has been reached which is consistent with the 
safety of the frontiersman, and with humanity toward 
the Indian. Even if this hope shall not be realized, 
it is, nevertheless, certain that a general Indian war 
of three months' duration would cost more than the 
total expenditure on account of Indians for the last 
three years and a half. . . . 

" There are several questions relating to the present 
and the future, which merit the attention of the people. 
Among the most interesting of these is the question 
of civil service reform. 

. " About forty years ago, a system of making appoint- 
ments to office grew up, based on the maxim, ' To the 
victors belong the spoils.' The old rule, — the true 
rule, — that honesty, capacity, and fidelity constitute 
the highest claim to ofiice, gave place to the idea that 
partisan services were to be chiefly considered. All 
parties in practice have adopted this system. Since 
its first introduction, it has been materially modified. 
At first, the president, either directly, or through the 
heads of departments, made all appointments. Gradu- 
ally, by usage, the appointing power, in many cases, 



was transferred to members of Congress, to senators 
and representatives. The offices, in these cases, 
have become not so mnch rewards for party services 
as rewards for personal services in nominating and 
electing senators and representatives. What patronage 
the president and his cabinet retain, and what offices 
congressmen are by usage entitled to fdl, is not defi- 
nitely settled. A congressman who maintains good 
relations with the Executive usually receives a larger 
share of patronage than one who is independent. The 
system is a bad one. It destroys the independence 
of the separate departments of the government; and it 
degrades the civil service. It. ought to be abolished. 
. . . The work should be begun. Let the best obtain- 
able bill be passed, and experience will show what 
amendments are required. I would support either 
Senator Trumbull's bill, or Uv. Jenks's bill, if nothing 
better were proposed. The admirable speeches, on this 
subject, of the representative of the First District, 
the Hon. Aaron F. Perry, contain the best exposition I 
have seen of sound doctrine on this question; and 
I trust the day is not distant when the principles 
which he advocates will be embodied in practical meas- 
ures of legislation. We ought to have a reform of the 
system of appointments of the civil service, thorough, 
radical, and complete. 

" The duties levied under our present tariff-laws 
were largely adopted during the war, when all home 
productions were burdened with heavy taxation under 



276 LIFE OF RUTHEEFOED B. HAYES. 

the internal revenue laws. All tax-laws, whether inter- 
nal revenue or tariff, were then regarded as war-meas- 
ures. Now that war-expenditures are happily ended, 
and the internal taxes are abolished, our tariff-laws need 
extensive revision. In all changes of laws affecting the 
business of the country, a prudent legislator will move 
cautiously. "When capital has been invested, and labor 
employed, in the faith of existing laws, the importance 
of stability is not to be overlooked. Reductions should 
be gradual and moderate. Violent and sweeping laws 
affecting the business of the country should be avoided. 
But where inequality has crept into the laws, it is never 
too early to begin to head the ship in the right direction. 
The tariff-laws now contain many inconsistencies and 
inequalities. Duties are levied which cost more to 
collect them than the revenue they produce. All such 
ought to be abolished. Some duties, now that the inter- 
nal revenue taxes are repealed, amount to jobs in favor 
of special interests, and increase to the consumer the 
cost of the dutiable articles far beyond the revenue 
realized by the government. In some cases the duties 
upon the articles deemed necessaries are greater than 
upon luxuries. On all these heads, revision and correc- 
tion are demanded. Upon this subject, each representa- 
tive is accustomed, more, perhaps, than any other, to 
regard the particular interests of his own constituents. 
In the needed revision of the tariff-laws it will be the 
special duty of the representative to see that the wishes 
and interests of his own constituents are fully and fairly 



EXTRACTS FROM GEN. HAYES's SPEECHES. 277 

represented. The question is not a party question, and 
cannot be made one. 

" The Democrats have ignored it in their national, 
state, and congressional platforms, and all sides they 
are supporting candidates for Congress without regard 
to their opinions on this subject. 

" In the congressional debates of a very few months 
ago, the subject of amnesty was a great deal discussed. 
But the recent sweeping act of amnesty, which relieved 
the great mass of those who were disqualified by the 
Fifteeenth Amendment, has deprived this question of 
its interest and importance. The policy of amnesty 
having been thus fully adopted, it should be extended 
to all whose only offence is participation in the Rebel- 
lion. Certain leading rebels, it is well known, are impli- 
cated in the attempts to burn hotels, steamboats, and 
cities, and in sending garments infected with contagious 
diseases into Union hospitals. They ought not to 
be allowed to sit again in the Senate of the United 
States, or to hold any office of honor or profit under 
the government. 

" It is one of the encouraging facts of the present 
condition of politics that public men now enjoy and 
exercise great independence of opinion and action, Avith- 
out losing the confidence of their supporters. Indeed, 
the number of questions of a political and party char- 
acter upon which a member of Congress is required to 
act is very small. The greater part of his duties relates 
to general or local affairs, on which parties are not 



278 LIFE OP RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

divided. A vast majority of the votes given in Con- 
gress are no longer part}^ votes. A man may differ on 
important questions with the president of his choice, or 
support measures recommended by the president of the 
party he opposes, without losing iniluence or position. 
If the people of the Second District shall see fit to honor 
me with their support, I hope to be able, without forget- 
ting my Republicanism, to so act on a large majority of 
subjects as to secure the approval of my constituents 
of all parties. If I should fail, it will not be from a 
lack of a disposition to do what is becoming in the 
independent representative of an intelligent consti- 
tuency. . . . 

" If elected a member of Congress, I shall deem it my 
duty to support every constitutional and proper measure 
calculated to give prosperity, impartial justice, and equal 
right to all classes of the Southern people, and to aid 
every just measure which will increase the means of 
communication between the South and the North." 

In his celebrated speech at Zanesville, O., Gen. Hayes 
took the ground that the new amendments to the 
National Constitution were not safe in the hands of the 
Democratic party ; and in that speech he said, — 

" In Indiana, the last authoritative Democratic utter- 
ance on this subject was the passage, in January last, 
by the Senate of that State, of the following resolution, 
offered by Mr. Hughes, every Democrat supporting it." 



EXTRACTS FEOM GEN". HAYES's SPEECHES. 279 

" ' Resolved^ That Congress has no lawful power de- 
rived from the Constitution of the United States, nor 
from any other source whatever, to require any State 
of the Union to ratify an amendment proposed to the 
Constitution of the United States as a condition prece- 
dent to representation in Congress ; that all such acts of 
ratification are null and void, and the votes so obtained 
ought not to be counted to affect the rights of the people 
and the States of the whole Union ; and that the State 
of Indiana protests and solemnly declares that the so- 
called Fifteenth Amendment is not, and never has been 
in law, a part of the Constitution of the United States.' 

" It is not necessary to go to neighboring States for 
Democratic authorities to show how far the new depart- 
ure is from modern Democracy. 

" When this question was last debated before the 
people of Ohio, the Democratic position on the principle 
of the Fifteenth Amendment, and on its constitutional 
validity, was declared adopted, and was thus stated. 

" Speaking of the principle of the amendment. Judge 
Thurman said, ' I tell you it is only the entering wedge, 
that will destroy all intelligent suffrage in this country, 
and turn our country from an intelligent white man's 
government into one of the most corrupt mongrel 
governments in the world.' 

" Of its validity, if declared adopted. Gen. "Ward 
said, — 

" ' Fellow-citizens of Ohio, I boldly assert that the 
States of this Union have always had, both before and 



280 LIFE OF EUTHEEFORD B. HAYES. 

since the adoption of tlie Constitution of tlie United 
States, entire sovereignty over the whole subject of 
suffrage in all its relations and bearings. Ohio has that 
sovereignty now ; and it cannot be taken from her with- 
out her consent, even by all the other States combined, 
except by revolutionar}" usurpation. The right to 
regulate suffrage as to the organization of its own 
government, and the election of officers under it, is an 
inalienable attribute of sovereignty, which the State 
could not surrender without surrendering its sovereign 
existence as a State. To take from Ohio the power of 
determining who shall exercise the right of suffrage 
is not an amendment of the Constitution, but a revo- 
lutionary usurpation by the other States, in no wise 
constitutionally binding on her sovereignty as a State.' 

" These opinions are still largely prevalent in the 
Democratic party. When a new departure was 
announced at Dayton, the leading organ of the party 
in this State said, — 

" ' There are matters in the jMontgomery County 
resolutions, which, it is very safe to say, will not receive 
the approval of the State convention, and which should 
not receive its indorsement. They have faults of omis- 
sion and commission. They evince a desire to sail with 
the v/ind, and as near the water as possible, without 
getting wet. The Democracy everywhere believe that 
the Constitution was altered by fraud and force, and 
do not intend to be mealy-mouthed in their expression 
of the outrage, whatever they may agree upon as to 



EXTRACTS FROM GEN. PIAYES'S SPEECHES. 281 

how the amendments should be treated in the future, 
for the sake of saving, if possible, what is left of con- 
stitutional liberty.' 

*' After the scheme was adopted in convention, the 
common sentiment was well expressed by the edtior, 
who said that ' the platform was made for present use, 
and is marked with the taint of insincerity.' 

" The speeches of Col. McCook and other Democratic 
gentlemen exhibit, when, carefully read, clearly enough, 
the character of the new departure. 

" In accepting the nomination, Col. McCook said, — 

" ' Let me speak now upon the Fifteenth Amendment, 
which confers the right of suffrage upon the blacks. 
It was no legitimate consequence of the war ; it was no 
legitimate consequence of secession : but it was passed 
in the exigency of a political party, that they might 
have control, as much in Ohio as in those States in the 
South. I opposed it as I did the Fourteenth, from the 
beginning, and I have no regrets from the opposition. 
But now a word more upon it. If it contained nothing 
but this provision for suffrage, there would be but little 
objection to it ; but it contains a provision intended to 
confer power upon Congress, which is dangerous to the 
liberties of the country ; and the dangers can only be 
avoided by having Democratic congresses in the future, 
who will trust no power to the Executive, which bears 
the purse and sword, to interfere with our elections.' 

" When interrogated on this subject at Chardon, he 
said, ' When he received the nomination, he had said 



282 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

that no black man who had received the right to vote 
under the Fifteenth Amendment ever could have it 
taken away. Repealing the Fifteenth Amendment 
would not take it away. That amendment is no more 
sacred, but just as sacred as any other part of the Con- 
stitution ; but repealing it could not take away a right.' 
He was asked, as to the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and 
Fifteenth Amendments, ' Do you regard them as in the 
same sense, and to the same extent, parts of the Consti- 
tution as other portions ? ' He answered, ' Yes, cer- 
tainly. Cannot men see the difference between oppos- 
ing the adoption of a measure, and yielding when it had 
been adopted, and opposition had become useless ? ' He 
was asked, ' Are these amendments never again to 
become political questions ? ' — 'I have no authority or 
power to answer such a question. How can I answer 
as to all the future ? How can I tell what the Demo- 
cracy of New York, or any other State, may do ? And 
how can they become political questions, now that they 
are acquiesced in by almost the entire jjeople of the 
country ? ' 

" j\Ir. Hubbard, the chairman of Col. McCook's first 
meeting, said, ' The Democrats did not dispute that 
this amendment, which was adopted by constitutional 
forms, was valid, but, while accepting it, call it " a new 
departure," if you please. We do not surrender our 
right to make such returns to the old Constitution as 
we may deem expedient. It is a future question that 
we are not bound to discuss.' 



EXTRACTS FROM GEN. HAYES'S SPEECHES. 283 

" The gentleman who had the second place on the 
Democratic ticket, Mr Hunt, says, ' There is no reason- 
ing, and certainly no circumstances, which can give the 
Thirteenth Amendment more binding force than either 
of the two other amendments. If the Thirteenth 
Amendment abolished slavery, then the title to vote 
under the Fifteenth Amendment is as perfect as the 
title to libert}^. The fact that they have been declared a 
part of the Constitution does not preclude a legitimate 
discussion as to their expediency. Proper action will 
never be barred ; for the statute of limitation will run 
with the Constitution itself. Experience may teach the 
necessity of a change in any provision of the organic 
law ; and any legislation, to be permanent, must con- 
form to the living sentiment of the people.' 

" These paragraphs furnish no adequate reply to the 
questions which an intelligent and earnest Republican 
who believes in the wisdom and value of the amend- 
ments would put to these gentlemen, when they ask 
him for his vote. He would ask, ' If the Democratic 
party should obtain the controlling power in the Gen- 
eral Government in its several departments, executive, 
legislative, and judicial, and in the State Governments, 
what would it do ? Would it faithfully execute these 
amendments? or would it not, rather, use its power to 
get rid of them, either by constitutional amendment, by 
judicial decision, by unfriendly legislation, or by a fail- 
ure or refusal to legislate ? ' Before the ' new depart- 
ure ' can gain Republican votes, its friends must answer 



284 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

satisfactorily these questions. The speeches I have 
quoted fail to furnish such answers. Col. Cook objects 
to the Fifteenth Amendment, because it ' contains a 
provision intended to confer power upon Congress 
which is dangerous to the liberties of the country.' 
Now, what is this dangerous provision ? It reads : — 

"■ ' Section 2. — The Congress shall have power to 
enforce this article by appropriate legislation.' 

" Each of the three recent amendments contain a 
similar provision. Without this provision, they would 
be inoperative in more than half of the late rebel 
States. The complaints made of these provisions warn 
us, that, in Democratic hands, the legislation required 
to give force and effect to these provisions would be 
denied. 

" But the most significant part of these speeches are 
the passages which refer to the repeal of the amend- 
ments. Mr. Hubbard said, ' We do not surrender the 
right to make such returns to the whole Constitution as 
we may deem expedient. It is a future question, that 
we are not bound to discuss.' Col. Cook says, ' How can 
I answer for all the future ? How can I tell what the 
Democracy of New York, or any other State, may do ? ' 
Mr. Hunt says, ' The fact that they have been declared 
a part of the Constitution does not preclude any legiti- 
mate discussion as to their expediency : proper action 
will never be barred.' The meaning of all this is, that 
the Democratic party will acquiesce in the amendments 
while it is out of power. Whether or not it will try to 



EXTRACTS FROM GEN. HAYES's SPEECHES. 285 

repeal tliem when it gets power, is a question of tho 
future which they are not bound to discuss. Or, as 
another distinguished gentleman has it, this question 
* Is beyond the range of profitable discussion.' In reply 
to this gentleman, the well-informed Republican citizen, 
when asked to vote for the ' new departure,' is very like 
to adopt their own phraseology, and to say, ' Whether I 
shall vote your ticket, or not, is a question of the future 
which it is not now proper to discuss.' It is ' beyond 
the range of profitable discussion.' And, if he has the 
Democratic veneration for Tammany Hall, he will say 
with Col. McCook, 'How can I tell what the Democracy 
of New York may do ? ' 

" Notwithstanding the decision of the late conven- 
tion, it is probable that the real sentiments of the 
democracy of Ohio are truly stated by ' The Butler 
County Democrat : ' — 

" ' Our position, then, is, that while we regard the so- 
called amendments as gross usurpations and base frauds, 
— de facto and de jure, — and therefore acts which 
are void, we will abide by them until a majority of the 
people of the States united shall, at the polls, put men 
in power who shall hold them to be null, and of no 
effect. We adhere strictly, on this point, to the second 
resolution of Hon. L. D. Campbell, adopted at the 
Democratic convention held in this county last May ; 
and, to refresh the minds of our readers, we reproduce 
it here. 

*' ' 2. That now, as heretofore, we are opposed to all. 



286 LIFE OF BUTHEEFOED B. HAYES. 

lawlessness and disorder, and for maintaining the 
supremacy of the Constitution and laws as the only 
certain means of public safety; and we will abide by all 
their provisions until the same shall be amended, abro- 
gated, or repealed by the lawfully constituted authori- 
ties.' 

" The ' new departure ' has certainly very little claim 
to the support of Republican citizens. What are its 
claims to the support of honest Democrats ? 

" Col. McCook, to make the ' new departure ' palata- 
ble to his Democratic supporters, tells them that a repeal 
of the Fifteenth Amendment Avould fail of its objc^ct ; 
that the right to vote, once exercised by the black 
man, cannot be taken away. Is this sound, either in 
law or logic ? By the Fifteenth Amendment, no State 
can deny the right to vote to any citizens on account 
of race or color. Suppose that amendmeijt was re- 
pealed, what could prevent Kentucky from denying 
suffrage to colored citizens ? Plainly nothing. And, in 
case of such repeal, it is probable, that, in less than 
ninety days thereafter, every Democratic State would 
deny suffrage to colored citizens, and the great body of 
Democratic voters would heartily applaud that result. 
The truth is, no sound argument can be made, showing, or 
tending to show, that the ' new departure ' is consistent 
with the Democratic record. Hitherto Democracy has 
taught, that, as a question of law, the amendments were 
made by force and fraud, and are therefore void ; that, 
as a question of principle, this is a white man's gov- 



EXTRACTS FROM GEN. HAYES'S SPEECHES. 287 

ernment, and that to confer suffrage on the colored 
races — on the African or Chinaman — would change 
the nature of the government, and speedily destroy it. 
Now, the ' new departure ' demands that Democrats shall 
accept the amendments as valid, and shall take a pledge 
' to secure equal right to all persons, without distinc- 
tion of race, color, or condition.' Sincere Democrats 
will find it very difficult to take that pledge, unless 
they are now convinced that their whole political life 
has been a great mistake. 

" When an individual changes his political principles, 
turns his coat merely to catch votes, he is generally 
thought to be unworthy of support. I entertain no 
doubt that the people of Ohio at the approaching elec- 
tion will, upon that principle, by a large majority 
condemn the Democratic party for its bold attempt to 
catch Republican votes." 

In one of his speeches in a campaign where Gen. 
Rosecrans had been nominated and declined, Gen. 
Hayes thus referred to him and the party : — 

" There were mutterings of aversion all around the 
camp. In Holmes and Butler they did not enthusias- 
tically cheer for ' Old Rosey.' Well, in due time came 
along Rosecrans' letter. ' No, I thank you, I must 
look after my family and my debts.' It is not a good 
thing for a man who cares for his family or creditors to 
be running on the Democratic ticket." 



288 LIFE OF KUTHEEFORD B. HAYES. 

In another address, and speaking of Mr. Pendleton, 
Gen. Hayes said, — 

*' It was not strange that he should wish to have such 
a record obliterated or forgotten, — to make a dead 
issue of this record of a statesman whose friends seek 
for him the stepping-stone to the presidency. Wash- 
ington was made president because of his past ; 
Grant was made president because of his past. It is 
the past record of a statesman for patriotism, for 
wisdom, for statesmanship, that is the best pledge of 
his future. The day never was seen by Clay or 
Webster, by Lincoln or Douglass, when they did not 
stand ready to defend their course in the past. Web- 
ster, a quarter of a century after the war with England, 
was questioned for the patriotism of his acts during 
the war ; and the most eloquent speech of his life was 
made in defending the wisdom and patriotism of that 
record.'* 

In a speech at Gallipolis, Gen. Hayes thus point- 
edly mentioned the capture of the Democratic Con- 
vention by the Greenback Party : — 

" Congress pledged the country that the issue of 
greenbacks should never exceed four hundred millions 
of dollars. And now our Democratic friends, after the 
close of the war, meet in Columbus ; and against the 
protest of Democrats of standing (Thurman and Payne 



EXTRACTS FROM GEN. HAYES'S SPEECHES. 289 

and Ranney), — against their protests, those more 
recent Democrats, — Gary and Ewing and Lew Camp- 
beU and Ba^er, — with the shell of the Republican 
egg from which they were hatched still sticking to 
their backs, resolved in favor of more greenbacks." 

Oct. 7, 1871, Gen. Hayes gave a short address at the 
dedication of the Davidson Fountain in Cincinnati, ui 
which he said, — 

" This work lends a new charm to the whole city. 
"Longfellow's lines in praise of the catawba that 
grows on the banks of the beautiful river gives to the 
catawba a finer flavor ^ and renders the beautiful river 
still more beautiful. When art and genius give to us 
in marble or on canvas the features of those we admire 
or love, ever afterward we discover in their faces and 
in their characters more to admire, and more to love. 

" This work makes Cincinnati a pleasanter city, her 
homes more happy, her aims worthier, and her future 
brighter. 

" But this fountain does not pour forth her blessings 
for Cincinnati, or for her visitors and guests alone. . . . 
This monument is an instructor of all who come. 
Whoever beholds it will carry away some part of the 
lesson it teaches. The duty which the citizen owes to 
the community in which and by which he has pros- 
pered — that duty this work will forever teach. No 
rich man who is wise will, in the presence of this exam- 



290 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

pie, willingly go to the grave with his debt to the 
public unpaid and unprovided for. IMany a last will 
and testament will have a beneficent codicil, suggested 
by the work we inaugurate to-day. Parks, fountains, 
schools, galleries of art, libraries, hospitals, churches, 
whatever benefits and elevates mankind, will here 
receive much needed encouragement and support. 

" This work says to him who with anxious toil and 
care has successfully gathered and hoarded. Do not 
neglect your great opportunity. Divide wisely and 
equitably between the few who are most nearly of 
your own blood, and the many who are in kinship only 
a little farther removed. If you regard only those 
reared under your own roof, your cherished estate will 
soon be scattered, perhaps wasted by profligate heirs 
in riotous living, to their own ruin, and you and your 
fortune will quickly be forgotten. Give a share, 
pay a tithe, to your more distant and more numerous 
kindred, — to the general public, — and you will be 
gratefully remembered, and mankind will be blessed by 
your having lived." 

One of the most interesting addresses delivered by 
Gen. Hayes, apart from his political speeches, was that 
delivered at the dedication of the Findlay soldiers' mon- 
ument, Wednesday, July 7, 1875 ; and we venture to 
give a very liberal extract : — 

" We are glad to see that the people of Hancock 



EXTRACTS FROM GEN. HAYES'S SPEECHES. 291 

County have done this wise and patriotic work. A 
monument in honor of the brave men of Hancock 
County who in that four-years' conflict for union and 
liberty fell, is erected in this town, — a monument of 
which all the people of the county will be proud, and 
wish to have remain here, we trust, forever. And why 
not erect a monument to those brave men ? In every 
age it has been the general judgment of mankind, that 
all men who freely and bravely gave their lives on the 
right side of a great and good cause should be forever 
remembered with gratitude. Is not this the fact with 
the men who went out from your county to gladden 
their homes no more by their safe return ? Did they 
not give their lives in a great and good cause ? We 
cannot indicate, even by words, all the facts that entitle 
us to claim for them what I have stated as a great and 
a good cause. 

" I hear that my friend Gov. Allen, and those with 
him travelling from Dayton, perhaps a hundred miles 
distant from here, passing through such towns as Troy, 
Wapakoneta, and Lima, and the smaller towns, were 
everywhere met by the American people celebrating 
the Fourth of July, that most illustrious date in the 
secular annals of our race. Now think, my friends. 
Suppose that the men who went from this country 
in 18G1 to 1865, — the men who fought at Stone River, 
Chickamauga, Vicksburg, and all the other twelve 
hundred battles and skirmishes of that war, — suppose 
that in the result they had failed, where would have 



292 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

been the Fourth of July ? What would have been our 
feelings ? Instead of our gratitude and happiness, and 
this outpouring of the people to celebrate it, it would 
have been a day of sorrow and shame and mortifica- 
tion. I am behind no man in doing honor to the 
fathers who founded the Republic ; but I must not 
forget, I do not forget, the comrades who perished in 
the war to save the Republic. What a task they had! 
Do you remember when Abraham Lincoln bade fare- 
well to his neighbors and friends at Springfield, — that 
last farewell to his old friends, — he said to them, ' The 
task which devolves upon me is greater than that 
which has devolved upon any man since Washington ; 
and I ask that you will pray that I may have that 
divine assistance, without which I cannot succeed, and 
with which I cannot fail.' It was to perform that 
task that Mr. Lincoln felt devolved so greatly upon 
him, that the brave men of Hancock County flocked 
to their country's standard in 1861 and in 1862 ; and 
along a line of frontier operations two thousand miles 
in length, extending from the Potomac to the Rio 
Grande, and stretching over every square mile of all 
those Southern States, these men marched and fought, 
and suffered and fell. 

" I know not how many of them have been gath- 
ered into the cemeteries near their home ; I know 
not how many others have been gathered into the 
beautiful national cemeteries near the great battle- 
fields; I know not how many are lying in swamps, 



EXTRACTS FROM GEN. HAYES's SPEECHES. 293 

along the mountain-sides, in nameless graves, the 
unknown heroes of the Union : but wherever they are, 
and however many there may be, you people of Han- 
cock County have erected your monument to all who 
fell, who left your county. All soldiers, I am sure, 
feel like thanking you for this. I remember well that 
one of the saddest days of my life was after one of 
our great battles in the early period of the war. Recov- 
ering from wounds, with other comrades who had been 
wounded there, we passed near the battle-field, as soon 
as we felt able to do so ; and, when we came there, what 
did we learn? Passing up the mountain, charging the 
line of the enemy, they fell : and everywhere were the 
shallow graves in which were deposited the remains of 
our seven hundred companions who had fallen. And 
how were they buried ? and how was their last resting- 
place marked ? Hastily, tenderly, no doubt, the parties 
detailed to bury them had gathered up their remains. 
You soldiers know how it was done. They placed 
upon the face of each man who died, wherever they 
could ascertain his name, a piece of an envelope, or 
a scrap of a letter, or something of the kind, contain- 
ing his name, his company, his regiment, fastening it 
there, hoping, that some day his friends might come 
and find him, and learn who it was there buried. And 
then, you remember, there were no coffins, nothing of 
the sort ; but they took the blue overcoat, and placed 
it around the man, and took the cape, and, bringing it 
over the face, fastened it down. This was his shroud ; 



294 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

this was his coffin : and he was placed away to rest 
until the resurrection moun. That was the manner of 
his burial. And strange I may say was the result of that 
woollen material over the face : saturated with water, 
•and covered with the earth, it did so protect them from 
decay, that months afterwards many were recognized 
by their friends, preserved as they were by the over- 
coat cape. And how was the grave marked ? With a 
pencil they scratched upon a piece of pine board — a 
thin piece of cracker-box — the name and company, 
which was placed at the grave. This was all then ; 
and we did not know what the result would be. We 
did not know what friends would do, what monuments 
would be reared. 

"As we left that field, talking to each other, we 
said there must be a soldiers' monument for the soldiers 
of our regiment. I would not claim that this was the 
first regiment that built a monument ; that the Twenty- 
third Ohio, to which I had the honor to belong, built 
the first monument: but I will say it was the first I 
heard of. After the famous Antietam campaign was 
fought, we called the men together, — four hundred and 
fifty or five hundred men, — and from the scanty pay 
wlfich was to support the men, and to some extent 
their families, the majority of the remainder subscribed 
at least one dollar, and others more, according to their 
ability, and raised in the regiment two thousand dollars 
to build a monument, on which, it was agreed, should 
be inscribed the name of every man in the regiment 



EXTRACTS FKOM GEN. HAYES'S SPEECHES. 295 

who had fallen, and every man who should fall during 
the continuance of the war. We had it placed in the 
cemetery at Cleveland, where more of our number 
came from than from any other place. Many a mon- 
ument has been built since, far grander than that, 
taller, and finer, and more expensive ; but that, so far 
as I know, was the first soldiers' monument. 

" We are glad to know that you of Hancock County 
have not neglected your duty in that regard. You 
mean that those men shall have their monument, and be 
remembered forever. It will be a monument that will 
have its value to you and your children : it will be an 
instructor, a teacher of lessons to all who look on it. 
What is it ? Why did these men perish ? Why was 
this monument built ? Here is a great nation : here is 
a country stretching from ocean to ocean, over the fin- 
est part of the best continent on the globe. On the 
day that they volunteered, the only enemy that the 
American nation could know, could fear, could dread, 
was in war against us. We cared nothing for foreign 
nations : they were too far, too distant ; and anyway, with 
the North and South united, as I believe they now are, 
in feeling, we can meet the world in arms against us. 
A house divided against itself — there was the danger; 
and that was the danger that these men went out to 
meet. And now, how is it to-day ? How stands the 
matter now? We know every acre of that beautiful 
land belongs only to the stars and stripes, and belongs 
to the flag forever. 



296 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

" And not only that lesson does it teach ; but it 
teaches, also, that this Union is dedicated to the prin- 
ciples of the Declaration of Independence. I hardly 
know what others may think about that; but I 
believe, that, in fifty years past, there never was a 
time when there was that prospect of complete and 
enduring harmony among all classes of people, in all 
sections of this country, that there is to-day. Why, 
think of it! On the 17th of June, the hundredth 
anniversary of the battle of Bunker Hill, we had 
Maryland Confederate regiments and soldiers saluting 

— in the streets of Boston, and on Boston Common 
and Bunker Hill — the men of Massachusetts ; we 
had South Carolina and Massachusetts shoulder to 
shoulder, as in the days when their fathers beat the 
British a hundred years ago. All this, I think, is 
due, in a great measure, to the success of our men to 
whom this monument is erected, and their comrades 
in other States and other organizations, living and 
dead. Think of the men themselves who were there, 

— citizen soldiers, not one, perhaps, of whom, was 
ever acquainted with war, or ever bred to war. Here 
and there one had been in the Mexican war ; here and 
there one had been in some Indian war; but, as a 
rule, they all came from civil life : they all came from 
where they were sovereigns, to be, for three years, 
obedient to men who were not better than them- 
selves. 

" Why, they tell us our bayonets could think. Yes, 



EXTRACTS FROM GEN. HAYES'S SPEECHES. 297 

and often and often it was the glory, in my judgment, 
of the private soldier, that the bayonet thought more 
truly, more wisely, more accurately, than the sword. 
A celebrated English statesman said, ' I can understand 
why these Americans, to the number of milhons, rushed 
to arms to defend the government they had made. 
There is no mystery in that. Now, I do not understand 
how it was, that, at the end of that war, a million of 
men quietly disbanded, and returned to the walks of 
peaceful life, and went back about their old occupa- 
tions, and became again good citizens.' There was one 
great advantage we had, — a people so educated, and so 
intelligent in all classes, that we could raise an army of 
that sort. 

" Our monument, then, stands and teaches us of the 
importance of the Union, the importance' of the prin- 
ciples of the Declaration of Independence, and the 
importance of universal education. My friends, what 
is a monument, however costly and beautiful, if it does 
not teach us some of the duties of practical life, how 
the living shall deal with the living ? When you shall 
see the widows of the soldiers, the parents and orphans 
of the soldiers, every man whose heart is in the right 
place feels his sympathies warmed towards them. 
There is no doubt as to that, I am sure, in any Christian 
community. But there is another lesson. The men 
who fell, the men who lost an arm or leg, the widows 
and orphans who are left, are not the only victims of 
the war. There must always be another class. We 



298 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

rejoice to know that the great body of young men who 
went out to the war returned to their homes, more 
manly, braver, and better than when they left them ; 
but they were gone, many of them, at the critical 
period of life, from sixteen to twenty years of age, just 
the period when they must learn habits of thrift, and 
the knowledge of occupations or trades that shall 
enable them to get that independence which every man 
in America ought to have, or try to have. They were 
during that period in the army ; and some came back 
with habits to which we regret to allude. But, my 
friends, when we look at that monument, we should be 
reminded that that man who may have thus formed 
any pernicious habits in the army is always one of the 
victims of the war. He has lost that which is better 
than life in trying to save the Republic. Avert not 
your gaze, patriotic men, from that man. Lift him up, 
help him, never give him up. Give him occupation, 
give him good words, save him, if you can. At any 
rate, treat him as one of the victims of the war." 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

NOMINATION FOR THE PEESIDENCT. 

Nominated by the Republican Convention. — Unexpected Honor. — 
His Previous Conversation on the Subject. — His Reception of the 
News. — His Letter of Acceptance. — Civil Service. — Currency. — 
Public Schools. — Relations between the North and South. — Clos- 
ing Remarks. 

June 14, 1876, Gen. Hayes was nominated by the 
National Republican Convention held at Cincinnati, as 
the candidate of the Republican Party for President of 
the United States. It was a great honor. Great men 
had sought the position ; and it was considered honora- 
ble for any man to seek it. Yet to Gen. Hayes it came 
as unsought as all his other public honors. To him it 
was almost wholly unexpected ; and few men in the 
nation were more surprised that day than was he, when, 
sitting quietly in his office at the Capitol in Columbus, 
the telegraph announced to him his nomination. 

The matter had sometimes been referred to in his 
presence by enthusiastic friends ; but, up to the mo- 
ment of his apprisal of the nomination, he never allowed 
himself to expect or desire it. One of his intimate 
friends wrote a letter soon after the nomination, in 



300 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

which the writer made a reference to his modesty, and, 
among other things, said, — 

" We had been to Jefferson, where the governor, on 
the 16th of September, made his campaign speech. 
Hon. B. F. Wade had introduced him in a glowing 
eulogy, which was published at the time, and in which 
he presented him as * a suitable man for the highest 
office in the gift of the American people.' 

" A resolution had been drawn by Hon. Abner Kel- 
logg, former representative, and afterwards senator 
from the Ashtabula District, nominating Gen. Hayes 
for Republican candidate for 1876. This Mr. Kellogg, 
by the way, was one of the leaders of the Liberals in 
Ashtabula County in 1872. Because the day was rainy, 
and the crowd small, the resolution was not offered, the 
mover preferring to take a more auspicious day to give 
the candidate a good send-off. 

" The next day, in the cars, I took pleasure in telling 
Gov. Hayes of this, and adding the assurance of a very 
warm interest in the subject. His reply was character- 
istic. Handing me the morning paper, which contained 
Mr. Adams's (so-called) letter declining to be a can- 
didate, he said, ' That letter shows how embarrassing it 
is to a man to be talked about in connection with that 
office, who does not regard himself as a candidate, and 
who, as in my case at least, does not expect to be a 
candidate. He can neither decline that which is not 
offered, nor withdraw a name which has not in any 
responsible way been presented. All he can do is to 



NOMINATION FOR THE PRESIDENCY. 



301 



say nothing about it; and even that may be miscon- 
strued.' He added, ' When I was a young man, I was 
delighted with Macaulay's Essays ; and one of them 
which left a lasting impression, was that wherein he 
says every man should take a just measure of himself. 
I know the country knows there are men so much 
greater than I — Charles Francis Adams himself, for 




_ _:....=i^^c:^.^'im^^S: 



THE WHITE HOUSE, 



instance, the ripe scholar, the successful diplomatist, 
and all that — tliat are fitted for the presidency, that I 
have come to regard these pleasant expressions for 
what I think they are worth.' " 

Such was the estimate which the man put upon 
himself, showing how all his intoxicating success, 
and all the flattery and popularity of so many years in 
office, had left him all his youthful modesty ; and the 



302 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

Rutherford B. Hayes of 1840 was the same unassum- 
ing person in 1876. 

He treated the nomination with due respect ; but it 
did not fill him with excitement, nor so pre-occupy his 
mind, that he could not continue the private business 
he had in hand when the news came to him. He pre- 
ferred to go home to Fremont, and live a retired life ; 
but if the path of duty led to the White House, or 
into a contest where the national honor was to be 
defended, he would follow that path, and do his whole 
duty. 

Soon after the letter notifying liim of the action of 
the convention was received, he wrote the following 
reply, accepting the nomination : — 

Columbus, O., July 8, 1876. 
Hon. Edward McPherson, Hon. William A. Howard, Hon. 
Joseph H. Rainey, and others of the Committee of the 
Republican National Convention. 

Crentlemen, — In reply to your official communication 
of June 17, by which I am informed of my nomination 
for the office of President of the United States by the 
Republican National Convention at Cincinnati, I accept 
the nomination with gratitude, hoping that, under 
Providence, I shall be able, if elected, to execute the 
duties of the high office as a trust for the benefit of all 
the people. I do not deem it necessary to enter upon 
any extended examination of the declaration of princi- 
ples made by the convention. The resolutions are in 



NOMINATION FOR THE PRESIDENCY. 303 

accord with my views, and I heartily concur in the 
principles which they announce. In several of the 
resolutions, however, questions are considered which 
are of such importance, that I deem it proper to briefly 
express my convictions in regard to them. 

The fifth resolution adopted by the convention is of 
paramount interest. More than forty years ago, a sys- 
tem of making appointments to office grew up, based 
upon the maxim, " To the victors belong the spoils." 
The old rule, the true rule, that honesty, capacity, and 
fidelity constitute the only real qualifications for office, 
and that there is no other claim, gave place to the idea 
that party services were to be chiefly considered. All 
parties in practice have adopted this system. It has 
been essentially modified since its first introduction. 
It has not, however, been improved. At first the 
president, either directly or through the heads of de- 
partments, made all the appointments; but gradually 
the appointing power, in many cases, passed into the 
control of the members of Congress. 

The offices in these cases have become not merely 
rewards for pacty services, but rewards for services to 
party leaders. The system destroys the independence 
of the separate departments of the government: it 
tends directly to extravagance and official incapacity : 
it is a temptation to dishonesty : it hinders and impairs 
that careful supervision and strict accountability by 
which alone faithful and efficient public service can 
be secured : it obstructs the prompt removal and sure 



304 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

punishment of the unworthy. In every way it de- 
grades the civil service and the character of the gov- 
ernment. It is felt, I am confident, by a large major- 
ity of the members of Congress, to be an intolerable 
burden, and an unwarrantable hinderance to the proper 
discharge of their legitimate duties. It ought to be 
abolished. The reform should be thorough, radical, 
and complete. We should return to the principles and 
practice of the founders of the government, supplying 
by legislation, when needed, that which was the for- 
merly established custom. They neither expected nor 
desired from the public officers any partisan service. 
They meant that public officers should owe their whole 
service to the government and to the people : they 
meant that the officer should be secure in his tenure 
as long as his personal character remained untarnished, 
and the performance of his duties satisfactory. If 
elected, I shall conduct the administration of the gov- 
ernment upon these principles, and all the constitu- 
tional powers vested in the Executive will be employed 
to establish this reform. 

The declaration of principles by the Cincinnati Con- 
vention makes no announcement in favor of a single 
presidential term. I do not assume to add that declara- 
tion ; but believing that the restoration of the civil 
service to the system established by Washington, and 
followed by the early presidents, can best be accom- 
plished by an Executive who is under no temptation 
to use the patronage of his office to promote his own 



NOMINATION FOR THE PRESIDENCY. 305 

re-election, I desire to perform what I regard as a duty, 
in stating now my inflexible purpose, if elected, not to 
be a candidate for election to a second term. 

On the currency question I have frequently expressed 
my views in public, and I stand by my record on this 
subject. I regard all the laws of the United States 
relating to the payment of the public indebtedness, the 
legal-tender notes included, as constituting a pledge 
and moral obligation of the government, which must in 
good faith be kept. It is my conviction that the feel- 
ing of uncertainty and insecurity from an irredeemable 
paper currency, with its fluctations of value, is one of 
the great obstacles to a revival of confidence and busi- 
ness, and to a return to prosperity. That uncertainty 
can be ended in but one way, — the resumption of specie 
payment ; but, the longer the instability connected with 
our present money system is permitted to continue, the 
greater will be the injury inflicted upon our economical 
interests, and all classes of society. If elected, I shall 
approve every appropriate measure to accomplish the 
desired end, and shall oppose any step backward. 

The resolution with respect to the public school sys- 
tem is one which should receive the hearty support of 
the American people. Agitation upon this subject is to 
be apprehended, until, by constitutional amendment, the 
schools are placed at bay, and all danger of sectional 
control and interference is passed. The Republican 
party is pledged to secure such an amendment. The 
resolution of the convention on the subject of the per- 



306 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

manent pacification of the country, and the complete 
protection of all its citizens in the free enjoyment of 
all their constitutional rights, is timely and of great 
importance. 

The condition of the Southern States attracts the 
attention, and commands the sympathy, of the people 
of the whole Union in their progressive recovery from 
the effects of the war. Their first necessity is an in- 
telligent and honest administration of the government, 
which will protect all classes of citizens in all their 
political and private rights. What the South most 
needs is " peace," and peace depends upon the suprem- 
acy of law. There can be no enduring peace, if the 
constitutional rights of any portion of the people are 
habitual'.y disregarded. A division of political parties, 
resting merely upon distinctions of race, or upon sec- 
tional lines, is always unfortunate, and may be dis- 
astrous. The welfare of the South, alike with that of 
every part of the country, depends upon the attractions 
it can offer to labor, to immigration, and to capital ; but 
laborers will not go, and capital will not be ventured, 
where the Constitution and the laws are set at defiance, 
and distraction, apprehension, and alarm take the place 
of peace-loving and law-abiding social life. All parts 
of the Constitution are sacred, and must be sacredly 
observed, — the parts that are new, no less than the 
parts that are old. The moral and material prosperity 
of the Southern States can be most effectually advanced 
by a hearty and generous recognition of the rights of 



NOMINATION FOE, THE PRESIDENCY. 307 

all by all, — a recognition without reserve or exception. 
With such a recognition fully accorded, it will be 
practicable to promote, by the influence of all legitimate 
agencies of the General Government, the efforts of the 
people of those States to obtain for themselves the 
blessings of honest and capable local government. 

If elected, I shall consider it not only my duty, but it 
will be my ardent desire, to labor for the attainment of 
this end. Let me assure my countrymen of the South- 
ern States, that, if I shall be charged with the duty of 
organizing an administration, it will be one which will 
regard and cherish their truest interests, — the interests 
of the white and of the colored people both and 
equally ; and which will put forth its best efforts in 
behalf of a civil policy which Avill wipe out forever the 
distinction between the North and South in our common 
country. 

With a civil service organized upon a system which 
will secure purity, experience, efficiency, and economy, 
a strict regard for the public welfare solely in appoint- 
ments, and the speedy, thorough, and unsparing prose- 
cution and punishment of all public officers who betray 
official trust ; with a sound currency ; with education 
unsectarian, and free to all ; with simplicity and frugal- 
ity in public and private affairs ; and with a fraternal 
spirit of harmony pervading the people of all sections 
and classes, — we may reasonably hope that tlie second 
century of our existence as a nation, will, by the bless- 



308 LIFE OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

ing of God, be pre-eminent as an era of good feeling, 
and a period of progress, prosperity, and happiness. 

Very respectfully your fellow-citizen, 
R. B. Hayes. 

Thus ends our story of a life which is full of instruc- 
tion for every reader. It may be that we have failed 
to bestow upon him all the praise he deserves, and it is 
possible that we have omitted much that would have 
been of interest ; but we lay down the pen with a con- 
sciousness of having written this biography under the 
inspiration of an earnest desire to extend a knowledge 
of a good and great man, and we feel that perhaps our 
work is as complete, and as free from errors, as any 
book would be, written, as this has been, in less than 
ninety hours. 




V:"^ 




1 



WILLIAM A. WHEELER 

OF NEW YORK. 



SKETCH OF HIS LIFE AND CHARACTER. 



WILLIAM A. WHEELER. 



CHAPTER I. 

EARLY LIFE AND PUBLIC SEE VICE. 

Place of Birth. — Traits of his Boyhood. — Attendance on the Com- 
mon School. — Course at the Franklin Academy. — Goes to the 
University of Vermont. — Undertakes the Study of Law. — First 
Tears of Law Practice. — Elected District Attorney. — Chosen to 
the State Legislature. — First Term in Congress. — President of 
the New York State Constitutional Convention. 

It is doubtful if there can be found a man in public 
life anywhere whose biography would be more difficult 
to write than that of William A. Wheeler. He is one 
of those few men who seem to be known and appreci- 
ated, and yet about whom the world knows but little. 
Nothing but a long and patient research in municipal, 
legislative, and congressional archives, could place him 
before the people in completeness and accuracy. In 
whatever he has undertaken, in whatever position he 
has been placed, he has conducted himself in such a 
manner, that his personal identity has been lost in the 
history of the measures he supported, or the crowd of 

8U 



312 WILLIAM A. WHEELER. 

men whom lie assisted. In a certain sense of the word, 
he is a very modest man ; and yet he is not bashful in 
society, nor diffident in public debate. 

There are some men whose personality is so promi- 
nent in whatever they do, that, while the listener 
forgets very quickly their words or their acts, he can- 
not fail to remember their appearance and their name. 
The opposite is the case with Mr. Wheeler. There are 
many thousand people now living who do not recall 
that they ever saw Mr. Wheeler, but who never can 
forget the speeches made by him in their presence, 
when the subjects were presented in such a style, that 
they wholly overlooked the speaker, and did not think 
to ask his name. He has a power to attract close atten- 
tion to what he is saying or doing, and keep himself 
in the background ; and, having availed himself of that 
power in nearly all his acts and words, it would be 
difficult for any person to give more than a sketch of 
his public life. 

He was born June 3, 1819, at the town of Malone 
in Northern New York, the capital town of Franklin 
County. Although, at the time of his birth, it was a very 
small village, and the region was regarded by Eastern 
people as being a wilderness in the " Far West," yet it 
has grown since that time to be an important commer- 
cial centre for a large and prosperous farming commu- 
nity, as well as a flourishing manufaoturing town, doing 
extensive business in machinery and flour. The Salmon 
River furnishes ample water-power for its manufactories. 



EAELY LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICE. 313 

There, among the working-people of that obscure town, 
and in a family neither wealthy nor poverty-stricken, 
William A. Wheeler drew the first breath of life ; and 
at no time in his life did he appear to forget his position. 
He was never afraid of work himself, and never relished 
the society of those, who, from laziness or aristocratic 
claims, refused to do an honest day's work. 

About his boyhood there was nothing to distinguish 
him from a score of his playmates who romped on the 
green, fished in the river, or played pranks among the 
workmen at the mills. He was never the ostensible 
leader in any game or frohc ; yet, without him, neither 
the game nor the frolic was successful. If the boys 
played soldier, he was in the ranks, and from that 
position gave orders to the captain. One of his old 
playmates says that he remembers young Wheeler 
when but ten years old, and that then the little fellow 
was regarded as one of the most trustworthy boys in 
town ; and that he was often intrusted with business 
which was seldom given to any person under twenty- 
five years of age. He was always punctual, truthful, 
and careful, and attempted nothing he did not under- 
stand. Yet he was lively, jolly, and happy, being a 
genial companion and a valuable friend. 

He appears, however, to have been but an ordinary 
scholar in the schools, having a natural aptitude and 
liking for mathematics. He attended the common 
school in Malone until sufficiently advanced to begin 
the regular course in the Franklin Academy, an insti- 



314 WILLIAM A. WHEELEE. 

tiition of good standing among our American acade- 
mies, and located in Malone. From the academy, lie 
began a course of study in the University of Vermont. 
But having determined to adopt the profession of law, 
and finding that, by the terms of the statutes then in 
existence, he would be obliged to devote seven years to 
the study of jurisprudence before he could be admitted 
to the bar, he left the university after a year's stay, 
and entered upon his studies as a student of law. 

In 1845 he began the practice of law in Malone, 
and soon acquired quite an extensive practice in such 
matters as usually come to the hands of a country law- 
yer. His business was, however, of a limited extent, 
and not very lucrative in the way of retainers and fees. 
He was regarded by his neighbors during those years as 
a young man of the average ability, hearty, generous, 
and trustworthy. In some branches of the law, how- 
ever, he was found to be the equal of some of the 
judges; and several cases are mentioned by his ac- 
quaintances as having been conducted with masterly 
eloquence, and exhibiting surprising legal acumen. 

His political life began before the organization of the 
Freesoil party, and while he regarded himself as a 
member of no political party. He had often taken an 
interest in local matters affecting the welfare of his 
community, and taken the leadership in some move- 
ments which were successful; but he never walked 
within the party traces, if any question of right or of 
reason interfered. His first office was that of district 



EAELY LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICE. 315 

attorney for his native county, to which he was elected 
by the Democratic party. The nomination and election 
came to him alike unsought, but, being in the line of 
his profession, was, doubtless, acceptable to him. 

His services as district attorney were so acceptable 
to the people, and his fitness for official duties so clearly 
displayed, that the voters of Malone began to wonder 
how it was that they had not thought of him before. 
At once, on his leaving the office of district attorney, 
the Whigs took him up as their candidate for the State 
assembly, and elected him by a handsome majority. 
His services in the legislature did not attract especial 
attention, as no matter of vital importance called out 
his talents, or led him to overcome his natural diffi- 
dence. 

On his return home from the assembly, there was 
offered him a position in a bank at Malone as cashier, 
which was an office far more lucrative than his pro- 
fession had been, and more congenial to his retiring 
disposition. 

As a cashier he was thoroughly successful ; and, by his 
unquestioned integrity and quickness of apprehension, 
he became very popular with stockholders and deposit- 
ors, and won his way into monetary circles as adviser 
by the prestige of his name. In the construction 
of the Ogdensburg and Rouse Point Railroad, which 
passes through Malone, Mr. Wheeler was much inter- 
ested, in common with a large portion o^ the people, who 
felt how much their local prosperity depended upon 



316 WILLIAM A. WHEELER. 

their railroad facilities. He was elected president of 
tlie corporation ; and his administration of its affairs, 
in matters of economy and financial arrangements, was 
so successful, that he was continued in the office eleven 
successive years. 

In the formation and success of the Republican 
party, Mr. Wheeler took a hearty interest, entering into 
the local organization with the pioneers of the move- 
ment. He had a hatred of slavery, and was open in 
his denunciation of the inhuman traffic in our fellow- 
men as early as 1855. By the Republicans he was 
sent to the New York legislature, and for them, in the 
Senate of 1858, he did good service, and was recognized 
as a strong and upright defender of liberty in every 
civilized form. 

Following his service in the State Senate came an 
election to Congress (1859), when the great questions 
preceding the Rebellion, and which at last brought it 
upon us, were being discussed with angry fervor. In 
that Congress the friends of human freedom had their 
bitterest fight. It was there that the slaveholders 
found the member from Northern New York as immov- 
able as a rock, and as courteous as a cavalier. Being a 
new member of the House of Representatives, he labored 
under many disadvantages, as the new-comers were 
regarded in Congress very much as freshmen are 
regarded in college ; and they do not usually obtain 
much influence until they enter for a second or third 
term. But Mr. Wheeler's actions and words are 



EARLY LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICE. 317 

recalled now by his fellow-members, and are spoken 
of by his opponents, with great respect. 

At the end of that term (1861), he retired to private 
life ; and declaring it to be his belief that as good men 
as himself could be found to fill the seats of Congress, 
and saying that all he cared about the matter was to 
have the office filled by some one who would do his 
whole duty, he indicated his desire henceforth to enjoy 
his home undisturbed by the cares of state. 

But in 1867, when his patriotism and speeches 
during the war had endeared him to the people with 
whom he had been associated, he was elected a member 
of the New York State Constitutional Convention; 
and upon its assembling he was promptly elected chair- 
man. His election to the office of presiding officer by 
that convention was regarded at the time as an honor 
nearly if not quite equal to that of being elected 
governor. It was an assemblage of the best and ablest 
men of that State, and was intrusted with the changes 
to be made in the organic law of that great common- 
wealth. It had need of great wisdom and great 
caution ; and Mr. Wheeler was to conduct its delibera- 
tions. It is said, that, while presiding over that body, 
he displayed a dignity and an executive ability which 
surprised even his intimate friends. There had been 
no occasion before in his life, which called out 
such features of his latent power; and his opening 
address as he took the chair has been preserved and 
repeated by thousands, and will be preserved and 



318 WILLIAM A. WHEELEE. 

repeated so long as the history of human freedom in 
our land remains of interest. He advocated negro suf- 
frage, and secured an article of amendment to the Con- 
stitution to be submitted to the people, which, while it 
failed to be ratified for the time being, only had to wait 
until the people were educated up to the high moral 
and political ground occupied by Mr. Wheeler. 



CHAPTER II. 

OFFICIAL LIFE. 

Elected to Congress. — Influence in the House of Eepresentatives. — 
Mentioned for the Office of President. — His Life in Washington. — 
Sends his Back Pay in 1ST3 to the United States Treasury.— 
Nominated for Vice-President. — Letter of Acceptance. 

In the autumn of 1867, Mr. Wheeler was nominated 
and elected by the Republicans of his district to a seat 
in the United States House of Representatives, and they 
have re-elected him in every congressional election since 
that time ; the last vote for him in his district being 
12,323 votes, while his opponent received only 5,553 
votes. 

His industry and sound judgment as chairman of the 
Committee of the House of Representatives upon the 
Pacific Railroad, and as a member of the Committee 
upon Southern Affairs, won for him the respect of every 
member of Congress, and gained for him a strong influ- 
ence in all matters of legislation. 

Among the members of Congress, he has long been 
mentioned as a man eminently fitted for the office of 
president; and one member of the House, of opposing 
political faith, pointed lu'm out to the writer in the 
winter of 1876, and said, " There is the man the Repub- 

319 



320 WILLIAM A. WHEELER. 

licans should take, if they want another Abraham 
Lincoln." But he added with a sigh, that " politicians 
are too corrupt nowadays to hope for the nomination 
of such a man by any party." 

One of his acquaintances, who resided in the same 
house Avith Mr. Wheeler, in Washington, before the 
death of his amiable wife, thus spoke of him in June, 
1876: — 

" Mr. Wheeler is a cousin of Rev. Alfred Wheeler, 
of the Methodist church in Ohio. He is a devout 
communicant of the Presbyterian church, a man of 
fifty-seven years, and of quiet, rugged strength of char- 
acter. He represents more of the ideal traits of George 
Washington than any other man of the century. In the 
midst of heated congressional debate, he always sits calm 
and self-poised. In the familiar relations of home-life, 
in a crowded boarding-house, where I have known him 
month after month (he presiding at the table next our 
own), I doubt if any one has ever seen a flaw in his 
character. You will, perhaps, remember that I told you, 
in connection with Mrs. Wheeler's obsequies, that Ran- 
dall stood by with tears in his eyes, and that Senators 
Conkling and Kernan, by their special request, were 
placed upon the list of pall-bearers. I never knew a 
man more thoroughly unambitious of office than he, or 
more adverse to ordinary newspaper mention. It is by 
the solicitation of prominent Republican friends that 
he has consented at all to the national use of his name. 
He will accept the trust as a duty, to be gravely and 



OFFICIAL LIFE. 321 

conscientiously undertaken ; and those who know him 
best know best how unsought and uucoveted it was, 
yet how high is his deference for the voice and man- 
date of the peox^le. If I were to recall, in detail, the 
most vivid memories of the past season in connection 
with himself and dear Mrs. Wheeler, it would be an 
occasional after-dinner hour in Mrs. Logan's parlor, 
listening to her kindly chat, or now and then pausing 
to hear the sweet melody of those household hymns 
we all love so well, floating down from their parlor 
above us, where Mrs. Wheeler would be, sitting at 
some light, dainty feminine work, and her rich voice 
would half unconsciously begin, — 

' Shall we gather at the river? ' 

or other kindred strain ; and Mr. Wheeler, pausing at 
his busy writing-desk, would always join in with his 
deep, clear bass, giving an unconscious impression of 
domestic harmony and worship that were a part of our 
household riches in this great, busy caravansery, my 
Washington home." 

In 1873 some of the political opponents raised a 
question aboiit INIr. Wheeler's action in connection with 
the increase of pay voted to themselves by members of 
Congress, and afterwards known as the " Salary Grab ; " 
and one of the newspapers in his district published an 
article in regard to it, in which were the following par- 
agraphs : — 

" The statement is almost daily made in the newspa- 



322 WILLIAM A. WHEELER. 

pers, that not a single member has placed his pay beyond 
his reach and ultimate reclamation. The people of this 
congressional district are concerned directly only 
with the action of their own representative. In order 
to a full understanding of that, we have taken steps to 
obtain from the treasury department information as to 
the particular manner and legal effect of Mr. Wheeler's 
disposition of his portion of the back-pay ; and we write 
with copies of the treasury record before us. Con- 
gress adjourned on the fourth day of March last. After 
the Appropriation Bill which gave the back-pay was 
signed, and certified to the secretary of the treasury, the 
question was raised by the comptroller of that depart- 
ment, that the aj)propriation was not available until the 
commencement of the fiscal year, July 1, 1873. This 
question was held under advisement several days, when 
it was decided that the fund was immediately available. 
Pending the decision of this question, Mr. Wheeler 
went to Virginia, where he remained several days, and 
then returned immediately home. On his way, and in 
the city of New York, he wrote the followmg letter, 
which fully explains itself : — 

New York, Marcli 19, 1873. 
Sir, — The law passed by the late Congress for increased 
compensation to members of the House of Representatives, and 
other officials, gives me, for the last two years, after specified 
deduction, $4,482.40. As this measure was opposed by my vote iu 
all its stages, it does not comport with my views of consistency or 
propriety to take the above sum to my personal use. I desire, 
therefore, without giving publicity to the act, to return it to the 



OFFICIAL LIFE. 323 

treasjiry, which I do by enclosing herewith five-twenty bonds of 
the United States, purchased with said funds, and assigned by me 
to you for the sole purpose of cancellation, as follows ; viz., 
Bonds and brokers' commission on purchase. $4,412 75 

Express charges 2 28 

Balance 67 37 

Total $4,482 40 

The balance is remitted by my check herewith. Please 
acknowledge receipt, and oblige. Respectfully yours, 

W. A. Wheeler. 
Hon. "William A. Richardson, Sec. of the Treasury, 

Washington, D.C. 

" To this the secretary replied as follows : — 

Treasort Department, "Washington, D.C, 
March 22, 1873. 
SiK, — Your letter of the 19th inst., enclosing coupon bonds 
of the Act of June 30, 1864, amounting to $3,800, and currency 
draft for $67.37, has been received. The proceeds of bond and 
draft have been covered into the general treasury of the United 
States in accordance with your wishes. Very respectfully, 

W. A. Richardson, Secretary. 
Hon. "W. A. "Wheeler, Malone, Franklin Co., N.Y. 

" It will be seen from the above that there can be no 
question as to the extinguishment of the legal title to 
the ' back-pay ' in Mr. Wheeler's case. He drew the 
money, and expended it for United States bonds, which 
he assigned to the secretary of the treasury for the 
' sole purpose of cancellation ; ' and the secretary says 
that he has complied with Mr. Wheeler's wishes. Un- 
less, therefore, the bonds can be resurrected from 
ashes, and Mr. Wheeler's assignment revoked, it would 



324 WILLIAM A. WHEELER. 

seem that his back-pay is pretty effectually disposed of. 
We conclude with the statement, of the truth of which 
we have official evidence before us, that Mr. Wheeler 
was the first man to adopt this means of refunding to 
the treasury what ought never to have been, under 
color of law, taken from it." 

At the Republican National Convention which nomi- 
nated Gen. Hayes of Ohio for President, the Hon. 
William A. Wheeler was unanimously nominated as a 
candidate for the office of Vice-President of the United 
States. To him it came, as to Gen. Hayes, unsought 
and unexpected. In accepting the nomination, he 
wrote the following characteristic reply: — 

Malone, July 15, 1876. 
Hon. Edward McPherson and Others of the Committee 
OF THE Republican National Convention. 

Gentlemen, — I ' received on the 6th inst. your com- 
munication, advising me that I had been unanimously 
nominated by the National Convention of the Republi- 
can party, held at Cincinnati on the 14th ult., for the 
office of Vice-President of the United States, and re- 
questing my acceptance of the same, and asking my 
attention to the summary of Republican doctrines con- 
tained in the platform adopted by the convention. 

A nomination made with such unanimity implies a 
confidence on the part of the convention which inspires 
my profound gratitude. It is accepted with a sense 
of the responsibility which may follow. If elected, I 



OFFICIAL LIFE. 325 

shall endeavor to perform the duties of the office in 
the fear of the Supreme Ruler, and in the interest of 
the whole country. 

To the summary of doctrines enumerated by the 
convention I give my cordial assent. The Republican 
party has intrenched in the organic law of our land the 
doctrine that liberty is the supreme unchangeable law 
for every foot of American soil. It is the mission of 
that party to give full effect to this principle by " se- 
curing to every American citizen complete liberty and 
exact equality in the exercise of all civil, political, 
and public rights." This will be accomplished only 
when the American citizen, without regard to color, 
shall wear this panoply of citizenship as fully and as 
securely in the canebrakes of Louisiana as on the 
banks of the St. Lawrence. 

Upon the question of our Southern relations, my 
views were recently expressed as a member of the 
Committee of the United States House of Representa- 
tives upon Southern Affairs. These views remain un- 
changed, and were thus expressed : — 

"We of the North delude ourselves in expecting 
that the masses of the South, so far behind in many 
of the attributes of enlightened improvement and civil- 
ization, are, in the brief period of ten or fifteen years, 
to be transformed into our model Northern communi- 
ties. That can only come through a long course of 
patient waiting, to wliich no one now can set certain 
bounds. There will be a good deal of unavoidable 



326 WILLIAM A. WHEELER. 

friction, wliicli will call for forbearance, and wliicli will 
have to be relieved by the temperate, fostermg care of 
the government. One of the most potent, if not in- 
dispensable, agencies in this direction, will be the 
devising of some system to aid in the education of the 
masses. The fact that there are whole counties in 
Louisiana in which there is not a solitary schoolhouse 
is full of suggestions. We compelled these people to 
remain in the Union; and now duty and interest de- 
mand that we leave no just means untried to make 
them good, loyal citizens. How to diminish the fric- 
tion, how to stimulate the elevation, of this portion of 
our country, are problems addressing themselves to our 
best and wisest statesmanship. The foundation for 
these efforts must be laid so as to satisfy the South- 
ern people that they are to have equal, exact justice 
accorded to them. Give them, to the fullest extent, 
every blessing which the government confers upon the 
most favored. Give them no just cause for complaint, 
and then hold them, by every necessary means, to an 
exact, rigid observance of all their duties and obliga- 
tions under the Constitution and its amendments, to 
secure to all within these borders manhood and citizen- 
ship, with every right thereto belonging." 

The just obligations to public creditors, created 
when the government was in the throes of threatened 
dissolution, and as an indispensable condition of its sal- 
vation, guaranteed by the lives and blood of thousands 
of its brave defenders, are to be kept with religious 



OFFICIAL LIFE. 327 

faith, as are all the pledges subsidiary thereto and con- 
firmatory thereof. In my judgment, the pledge of 
Congress of Jan. 14, 1875, for the redemption of the 
notes of the United States in coin, is the plighted faith 
of the nation and national honor. Simple honesty and 
justice to the people, whose permanent welfare and 
prosperity are dependent upon true money as the basis 
of their pecuniary transactions, -all demand the scrupu- 
lous observance of this pledge ; and it is the duty of 
Congress to supplement it with such legislation as shall 
be necessary for its strict fulfilment. 

In our system of government, intelligence must give 
safety and value to the ballot. Hence the common 
schools of the land should be preserved in all their 
vigor while in accordance with the spirit of the Consti- 
tution. They and all their endowments should be 
secured by every possible and proper guaranty against 
every form of sectarian influence or control. 

There should be the strictest economy in the expen- 
ditures of government, consistent with its effective 
administration, and all unnecessary offices should be 
abolished. Offices should be conferred only upon the 
basis of high character and particular fitness, and 
should be administered only as public trusts, and not 
for private advantage. 

The foregoing are chief among the cardinal princi- 
ples of the Repubhcan party ; and to carry them into 
full practical effect is the work it now has on hand. 
To the completion of its great mission we address our- 



328 WILLIAM A. WHEELER. 

selves in hope and confidence, cheered and stimulated 
by the recollection of its past achievements, remember- 
ing that, under God, it is to that party that we are 
indebted, in this centennial ye^ar of our existence, for a 
preserved, unbroken Union, for the fact that there is 
no master or slave throughout our broad domains, and 
that emancipated millions look upon the ensign of the 
Republic as the symbol of the fulfilled declaration that 
all "men are created free and equal," and the guaranty 
of their own equality, under the law, with the most 
highly favored citizen of the land. 

To the intelligence and conscience of all who desire 
good government, good will, good money, and univer- 
sal prosperity, the Eepublican party, not unmindfid of 
the imperfections and shortcomings of human organi- 
zations, yet with the honest purpose of its masses 
promptly to retrieve all errors, and to summarily pun- 
ish all offenders against the laws of the country, 
confidently submits its claims for the continued support 
of the American people. 

Respectfully, 

William A. Wheelee. 



A Work of Historic Value. 



HISTOH Y 

OF 

THE GREAT FIRE IN BOSTON, 

November 9 and. lO, 1872. 
WRITTEN BY RUSSELL H. CONWELL 

OF BOSTON. 



This book has had an immense sale, and will be found 

A VALUABLE ACQUISITION 

To such private and public libraries as have not already secured it. 



SOLD ONLY BY SUBSCRIPTION, 

OR UPON ORDERS BY MAIL. 
312 PAGES, NEATLY BOUND. 

Price $1.50. 



PUBLISHED BY B. B. RUSSELL, 

55 COBM-HILL, 
BOSTON, MASS. 



NEAV BOOK 



WOMAN AND THE LAW 



COJIPARISON OF THE RIGHTS OF ]\IEN A^STD THE EIGHTS 
OF WOMAN BEFORE THE LAW. 

BY RUSSELL H. CONWELL 

OP BOSTON, MASS. 



This volume is an enlarged view of the legal rights of women, 
and confirmatory of the statements made by the author in his 
celebrated lyceum lecture upon " Lawyers." It is written in an 
easy, popular style, and is interesting and instructive to eveiy 
reader. It shows conclusively that women do not claim a tithe 
of the privileges they now have, and that, in the courts of this 
•country, she is held to be a " superior being." " The Boston 
Sunday Herald," in an editorial article on the subject, refers to 
Col. Coxwell's book, and says, " It will be a matter of surprise 
to many of our readers to learn, from the extracts which we print 
in another column, what an immense advantage the women have 
already secured over men by the enactment of laws for their 
especial benefit." The book contains about one hundred pages, 
is neatly bound in muslin, and will be sent by mail, to any address, 
on receipt of one dollar. 



PUBLISHED BY B. B. RUSSELL, 

55 CORNHILIi, 
BOSTON, MASS. 

Lb 20 



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